195 Tenebrionidae und Curculionidae. 30,7 
2°. The early stages or mode of life : As in Europe, where the genus, so distinct a one is also 
represented, the grubs or larvae are feeding on the roots of bulbaceous plants. I remember finding myself 
here while entomologising on a piece of ground recently swamped. I could have collected handfulls of the 
very large grubs of Bracliycerus obesus (the only kind found in that neighbourhood) which had come to the 
surface, holding however tenaciously still to the collar of the liliaceous plants profusely scattered in that 
accidently submerged part of the veld. The following day the water having subsided they had returned 
to the lower part of the bulbs which were plainly their plant food. It is therefore to the abundance in South 
Africa of bulbous plants more than to the accidental destruction or preservation of the individuals that the 
occurrence of so many representatives of one genus is probably due. This abundance is borne out by the 
fact that the proportion of bulbous plants is pronounced by such a local authority as Dr. H. Bolus to be 
as follows: 
In the littoral strip from 40 to 70 miles wide beginning at Oliphants River and extending north- 
wards, the proportion of the Liliaceae to that of the other Orders is 3,6 °/ of the whole; in the upper 
Karroo region, the Liliaceae are 2nd. on the list, and compose 8,2 °/ of the Flora, the Iridaceae, also 
bulbous, 2,4 °/ . In the Kalahari Region in which Bolus comprises German S. W. Africa, British Bechuana- 
land, Orange River Colony etc., the Liliaceae and Iridaceae together comprise 8,16% of the whole. — 
Resistance to the extremes of drought and heat is insured thereby to the Brachycerid larva feeding thereon. 
Of the habits of the Siderodactylus species of the Brachyderinae I know but little. I am informed 
that they are found on low shrubs. Few Curculionid exhibit greater modification of some of the limbs for 
mating purposes. Enormously enlarged forethighs, tibiae shortly serrated inwardly so as to ensure a firm 
hold, such are the attributes of the males. The serration of the inner part of the tibiae is however also 
met with in the female, showing that the adaptation to holding on to a twig may become so intensified as 
to become useful for sexual purposes. Dr. Schultze has also captured the remarkably gay coloured 
Cimbus barbicauda, and also Polycleis longicornis, in which the sexes are so much differentiated (this occurs 
also in other species of the genus) that they were singly described as distinct species. In the Hippo- 
rhinidae 3 species were found, kinds which are either met with on the ground, or occasionally on low 
shrubs, as far as I know. The two species with serrated inner tibiae which I found in Namaqualand on 
species of Rhus, have not been met with by Dr. Schultze. 
Among the Cleonidae is a new species belonging to a purely South African group remarkable 
for its coating of thick, white scales, a colouring which certainly does not harmonise with the surroundings, 
and may rightly puzzle such observers as those who believe in the theory of adaptation in colour and form 
of certain animals to their natural surroundings. 
To conclude. Do the Coleopterous insects collected by Dr. Schultze and belonging to the two 
families entrusted to me for identification and remarks theron, give any idea of the distribution of the 
entomological fauna of the country he has been exploring? My answer is : 
Yes, in so far as the endemic forms are concerned. As I said in my preliminary remarks I could 
from the inspection of his captures teil what his itinerary had actually been. I could have almost have 
pointed out the localities, or their immediate neighbourhood, where the insects had been captured, partly 
because I had been collecting myself in little Namaqualand, partly because I saw and determined collections 
made in Bechuanaland (Cape and British), and in Herero- and Ovamboland. 
The difference in the indescribable something of the facies is plainly distinct in the species of the 
two families I have been treating. It is certainly more distinct than in the other families treated, so far, by 
other authors in the present work. 
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