COLEOPTEUA. 495 



The abdomen is bulky in most of them, the antennae geni- 

 culate, and frequently clavate. The penultimate joint of the 

 tarsi is almost always bilobate. The posterior thighs are den- 

 tated in several. 



The larvse have an oblong body, and resemble a small, very 

 soft, white worm ; their head is squamous, and they are desti- 

 tute of feet, or in lieu of them there are merely small mammillae. 

 They gnaw various parts of plants. Several live exclusively 

 in the interior of their fruit or seeds, and frequently do us 

 much injury. Their chrysalides 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 



curlionites . They are divided into the Brevirostres and Longirostres, thereby in- 

 dicating the insertion of their ^ntenna:. In the former, these organs, at their 

 origin, are even with the base of the mandibles, and behind or nearer the head in 

 the other. The genei'a of the Brevirostres are arranged in three sub-tribes, viz. 

 the Pachyrhynddes, Brachycerides, and Ldparides, which correspond to the genera 

 Curculio, Brachycerus, and Lipanis of Ohvier; the last also comprises some of his 

 Lixi- The relative size and form of the mentum, the mandibles, the presence 

 or absence of wings, the direction of the lateral sulci of the proboscis, or rather of 

 the proboscis-snout (museau-trompe), where the first joint of the antennse is 

 partly lodged, the length of that joint, the proportions and forms of the thorax, 

 and other very secondary considerations, furnish the characters of these various 

 groups. The Cucurlionites Longirostres are divided into two principal sections 

 from their habits, and the composition of their antenna. In the Phyllophagi, 

 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 Lixides (Lixus, Fab.), the Rhyn- 

 chmnides (Rhynchseus, Oliv.), Cionides (Gionus, Clairv. ), and the Orchestides (Or- 

 chestes, lUig.). The Spermatophagi are divided into three principal sections, or 

 sub-tribes: the Calandraeides (Calandra, Clairv., Fab.), the Cossomides (Cossomus, 

 Clairv.), and the Dryopthor ides {Dry opthoras, Schoenh. — Bulbifer, Dej). These 

 latter lead to the Hylesimi, Fab., and other Xylophagi. 



