Attelabid^.- 



-INSECTS.- 



-RiivxciHTEs. 



227 



fine as hardly to be perceived, and are soon closed. 

 Sometimes every pea in a pod will be found to contain 

 a weevil grub ; and so great has been the injury to tlie 

 crop in some parts of the country, that the inhabitants 

 liave been obliged to give up the cultivation of this 

 vegetable." * 



Peas are destroyed by the grub of a species of this 

 group [Bruchus granarius), the female of which will 

 sometimes deposit au egg in every pea of a pod. But 

 a species indigenous to North America, and also found 

 here, is in the former country at times so alarmingly 

 destructive as to prevent the inhabitants from cul- 

 tivating pease. Kalm, the pupil of Linnieus, and who 

 travelled in North America, was alarmed on o])ening 

 a parcel of peas to see that they were infected by the 

 Bruchus, for he feared lest he should be the means of 

 introducing a most destructive insect into Sweden. In 

 France in 1780, the Druchi seem to have been very 

 abundant ; for in that year a rumour arose tliat many 

 had been poisoned by eating pease attacked by worms, 

 and in consequence the authorities would not allow 

 them to be offered for sale in the public market. A 

 Bruchus attacks a leguminous seed called gram in India, 

 where it is used when boiled as food for horses. The 

 valuable cacao or chocolate plant {Theobroma cacao) 

 has its pecuhar Bruchus, as have many other plants. 



There are nine British species. The South American 

 Bruchidse — of the genus Caryoharus — are very large. 

 I have seen the larva of one in the hard nut of a palm, 

 which looked no softer than ivory. 



Family— ANTHRIBID^. 



The family Antiiribid^, a very large and fine 

 group, but feebly represented in our islands by eight 

 British species, contains insects with broad, flat noses, 

 and often with antennae of the most wonderful length. 

 Many of the South American genera are very curious, 

 but none are more strange than some of the odd forms 

 sent lately by Wallace from the East. M. Henri Jekel, 

 in the Insecta Saundersmna, figured many fine species 

 in the vast collections of W. W. Saunders, Esq. The 

 British genera are — Brachyhirsus, Tropideres, Platy- 

 rluiius, Aiilhribus, and the curious little jumping 

 C/ioragtis described by Kiiby. 



Family— ATTELABID^. 



A large family of the group, of which there are at 

 least ninety-four recorded British species, the great 

 mass of which belong to the genus Apion — a race of 

 small beetles so named from their pear-shape ; they 

 are attenuated in front, and gradually thickened 

 behind. Look at the figure of the strangely-dilated 

 Brazilian genus Camarotus [Camarotug marginalis, 

 fig. 119). ]\Iany of the family are very destructive to 

 plants, and the Apions are especially destructive to 

 the crops of the farmers. 



Some of the exotic genera are most strange, such as 



the enormously long-necked Indian and Madagascar 



Apoderi, and a curious genus from that great African 



island, called by the writer Laijenodcrus, from its curious 



• Insects Injurious to Vegct.ition, p. .')5. 



flask-shaped neck. Many of the Apoderi are spined. 

 Antliarhinua is placed by authors in a separate family, 



Fig. 119. 



Fig. 120. 



Camarotus in ii'L'inalis. 



Antliaihiinis Zaniiie. 



but we may introduce it here. Fig. 120 shows the form 

 of the Antliarhinus Zamiie. 



The species of Rliynchltes are often beautifully 

 coloured — some brilliant green, others bright purple, 

 and others blue, while all tints decorate others. 



I extract from the " Introduction to Entomology " a 

 passage which will explain the habits of some of the 

 genera of this family : — 



" The habitations constructed for their futiu-e larva; 

 by the beautiful weevils or long-snouted beetles of 

 the genera Rhyncliites, Attelahus, and Ajioderm, 

 consist of the whole, or more commonly a part, of 

 a leaf on which they are to feed, rolled up with 

 great art by the mother into a sort of cylinder, 

 sometimes resembling a little horn and at others a 

 wallet more or less elongated ; thus giving a singular 

 appearance to the leaves so treated, which, while their 

 basal portion retains its usual form, have their extrem- 

 ities metamorphosed into these odd-looking apiien- 

 dages. A very interesting description of the mode in 

 which these nests are constructed lias been lately given 

 by M. Huber of Geneva, who has detailed the pro- 

 cedures of Rhynchih'S Bacchus with the leaves of the 

 vine, oiR. Populi with those of the poplar, of .R. Betulce 

 with those of the beech and birch, of Apoderiis Coryli 

 with those of the hazle, and oi Attchihus Curcullonokh s 

 with those of the oak, of which last, as more fully 

 described by M. Gourcau, I will give you a short 

 account. The female having deposited a single egg, 

 which adheres by its natural gluten, near the mid-rib 

 of the end of the upper side of the leaf she has selected, 

 passes to the under surface, and slightly, but repeatedly, 

 gnaws with her small jaws,both the mid-rib and epidermis 

 in every part until both are rendered perfectly pliable. 

 Her next business is to roU up this terminal portion of 

 the leaf, in effecting which she thus proceeds : — First, 

 she folds it together longitudinally so as to cover her 

 egg, the mid-rib forming one edge of the folded part, 

 and its marginal serratures the other. Next, she places 

 herself at a right angle with the mid-rib, towards which 

 her tail is directed, wliile Iier head jioints to the ser- 

 ratures, and fixing the claws of her two hind left 

 legs into the leaf, she employs those of the two fore 

 legs to pull the [loint of it towards her; and by a 

 repetition of these manu'uvrcs, not easily described, 

 she at last succeeds in rolling the whole into a htllo 



