278 HOMES ■WTTHOXJT HANDS. 



are a few species of these long-snouted beetles which make for 

 themselves certain pensUe habitations of a most elegant form. 

 Two genera of Weevils are remarkable for the beauty of their 

 cocoons, namely, the Hypera and Cionus. 



If the reader should desire to possess specimens of these 

 cocoons, he cannot do better than procure some seeds of the 

 common species of Verbascum, say the Great and White Mul- 

 leins (Verhascum Thapsus and LychnUis), and sow them in sandy 

 or gravelly soil The beetles of the genus Cionus feed on the 

 mulleins, and when they are about to change into the pupal 

 state, do not trouble themselves to leave the plant upon which 

 they have been feeding. So fond are these beetles of the 

 Verbascum, that Mr. Stephens found on a solitary plant, which 

 was growing in a garden at Eipley, all the five species of the 

 genuE. 



During the month of August the larva may be found in the 

 flowers and seeds, and one species burrows into the leaves them- 

 selves, getting between the two membranes and feeding on the 

 soft green parenchyma. When the larva are about to enter the 

 pupal state, they cease from feeding, and spin for themselves 

 cocoons of a most remarkable shape. The cocoons are very small, 

 being on the average about as large as sweet peas, and nearly as 

 globular. They are constructed of a rather stiff and glutinous 

 thread, which is so wonderfully twined as to form large open 

 meshes of a nearly circular form. 



The cocoon is very firm and elastic, feeling and looking very 

 much like those hollow spheres and cylinders that artists in hair 

 are so fond of making. The open meshes are so large that the 

 enclosed pupa can be seen through them, so that there is but 

 little protection from the elements. A very good idea of the 

 general appearance of the cocoon may be obtained from the toys 

 which are made from nuts by neat-handed schoolboys, by the 

 simple process of boring them full of holes until the shell is 

 reduced to a kind of wooden network with circular meshes. 



All the beetles of the genus Cionus are pretty little creatures, 

 very hard shelled, nearly as globular in form as the cocoon, and 

 marked with dark patches and streaks. 



The cocoons of the genus Hypera are also made with open 

 meshes, and of a similarly stiff thread, but the form is oval 

 instead of round. The larva of the Hypera is long and narrow, 



