BEETLES. 339 



one species, at least, Phytobius velatus, rarely seen on water plants both in Europe 

 and America, can swim fairly well. Of another species, Lissorhoptrus simplex, which 

 attacks rice in the eastern United States, Dr. C. V. Riley writes, "The beetle is just 

 as much at home under water as out of it, though not surrounded by an air-bubble, as 

 in HydrophilidfB, ElmidsB, Psephenus, and- others." 



A large number of adult weevils imitate their usual surroundings, bark, leaf-buds, 

 and other parts of plants, so successfully that they are well protected from attacks of 

 birds. In their earlier stages most of them are hidden, and the pupae of some {e. g. 

 Cionus) that pupate in exposed situations so closely resemble seed-pods of the plant 

 on which the larvae feed that they are not molested by birds. 



Guibourt, in 1858, called attention to a sugar which iigures in the materia medica 

 of Persia, under a name meaning nest-sugar, which is obtained from swellings, as 

 large as olives, that are produced by a species of Larinus upon a plant of the genus 

 Echinops, in Syria. According to Hanbury, another species of Larinus from the 

 same region makes a cocoon containing saccharine matter. 



The number of described species of Curculionidae exceeds ten thousand. This 

 family is here divided into sub-families, which correspond in limitations and charac- 

 ters to the similarly ' designated families in Le Conte and Horn's Rhynchophora of 

 America north of Mexico. 



To the sub-family Apioninae belong those species which have straight antennas, the 

 abdomen of the male and female alike, horizontal pygidium, and the elytra with a 

 lateral fold on the inner surface. Most of the species are quite small. 



Apion, the typical genus of this sub-family, is well represented in North America, 

 but the species are not yet carefully studied. Many of these little weevils feed in 

 seeds. In America A. rostrum feeds in seeds of Paptisia leucantha; A. segnipes 

 in seeds of Tephrosia virginica and of Astragalus. In Europe, Heeger found the 

 larvae of A. curvirostre in the stem of mallow (Malva). The females, after pairing 

 several days with different males, lay their eggs, to the number of fifty or sixty, in 

 holes which they bore into the stem of the mallow. The larvae attain full growth in 

 from thirty to forty days, the beetles develop in from ten to fourteen days more, and 

 gnaw their way out of the stems. 



The sub-family Calandrinse contains species which have a steep or vertical pygid- 

 ium, and geniculate, clubbed antennae. The species range from very large to very 

 small weevils. 



Three species of the genus Calandra are distributed in North America, two of 

 which have been introduced from Europe. They are small, and have an oval antennal 

 club. C. gra?iaria is a pitchy red weevil about 0.12 of an inch long. The striate 

 elytra do not reach the tip of the abdomen ; the coarsely punctured thorax is nearly 

 half as long as the whole insect. The females lay their eggs on stored grain, in which 

 the larvffi feed. By rapid multiplication and immense numbers they sometimes do 

 great damage to grain in store. C. oryzw, a beetle similar in form to the preceding 

 species, but a trifle smaller, being generally about 0.1 of an inch long, differs from it 

 also in having one or two large red spots on each elytron. It attacks rice, wheat, and 

 corn (Zea mays), ovipositing on rice while growing. This beetle is said to have been 

 distributed by commerce to nearly every part of the world. The other North Ameri- 

 can species of Calandra, C. remotepunctata, resembles C. granaria, but has much 

 more coarsely striated elytra. Like the introduced species of the genus, O. remote- 

 punctata feeds on grain. 



