COLEOPTERA. 81 
The abdomen is bulky in most of them, the antenne geniculate, 
and frequently clavate. The penultimate joint of the tarsi is almost 
always bilobate. The posterior thighs are dentated in several. 
The larvee have an oblong body, and resemble a small, very soft, 
white werm; their head is squamous, and they are destitute of feet, 
or in lieu of them there are merely small mammille. They gnaw 
various parts of plants. Several live exclusively in the interior of 
their fruit or seeds, and frequently do us much injury. Their chry- 
salides are enclosed in a shell. Many of the Rhynchophora, when 
very abundant within certain limits, are even very noxious in their 
perfect state. They tap the buds or leaves of various cultivated 
vegetables, useful or necessary to man, and feed on their parenchyma, 
In some the labrum is apparent, the anterior elongation of their 
head short, broad, depressed, and in the form of a snout; the palpi 
are very visible and filiform, or larger at the extremity, They com- 
pose the genus 
Brucuus, Ln., 
Which are subdivided as follows :— 
Those species in which the antenne are clavate, or very evidently 
larger at the extremity, where the eyes are unemarginated, and where 
straight or geniculate, into two great sections, the Reecticornes or Orthocera, and the 
Fracticornes or Gonatocera. The anatomical observations of M. Leon Dufour seem 
to strengthen this distinction. The latter are furnished with salivary vessels, while 
in the former they are wanting. These form four tribes, the Brucheles, the Anthri- 
bides, the Attelabides, and the Brentides. The labrum and palpi are very visible in the 
two first ; these palpi are filiform or larger at the extremity; they are very small and 
conical in the two other tribes, as in all the following Rhynchophora. ‘The Fracti- 
cornes form a fifth tribe, that of the Cucurlionites. They are divided into the Brevi- 
rostres and Longirostres, thereby indicating the insertion of their antenne. In the 
former, these organs, at their origin, are even with the base of the mandibles, and 
behind or nearer thehead in the other. The genera of the Brevirostres are arranged 
in three sub-tribes, viz. the Pachyrhyncides, Brachycerides, and Liparides, which cor- 
respond to the genera Curculio, Brachycerus, and Liparus of Olivier; the last also 
comprises some of his Livi. The relative size and form of the mentum, the mandi- 
bles, the presence or absence of wings, the direction of the lateral sulci of the pro- 
boscis, or rather of the proboscis-snout (museau-trompe), where the first joint of 
the antenne is partly lodged, the length of that joint, the proportions and forms of 
the thorax, aud other very secondary considerations, furnish the characters of these 
various groups. The Cucurlionites Longirostres are divided into two principal sec- 
tions from their habits, and the composition of their antenne. In the Phillophagi, 
they consist of ten joints at least, and the three last, at least, form the club which 
terminates them. ‘Those of the Spermatophagi present at most but nine joints, of 
which the last, or two last at most, constitute the club. The legs of the Phyllo- 
phagi are sometimes contiguous at their origin, and sometimes remote. Those in 
which they touch are divided into four tribes: the Livides (Lixus, Fab.), the Rhyn- 
chenides (Rhyncheeus, Oliv.), Cionides (Cionus, Clairy.), and the Orchestides (Or- 
chestes, Illig.). The Spermatophagi are divided into three principal sections, or sub- 
tribes; the Calandreides (Calandra, Clairy., Fab.), the Cossomides (Cossomus, 
Clairv.), and the Dryopthorides (Dryopthorus, Schoenh.—Bulbifer, Dej.). These lat- 
ter lead to the Hylesimi, Fab., and other Xylophagi. 
