INSECT ENEMIES OF EASTERN FORESTS IS] 
FamMity ANTHRIBIDAE 
The Fungus Weevils 
The fungus weevils are brown to whitish mottled beetles, with short. 
broad beaks. In this family the labrum is present, the palpi are flex- 
ible, in contrast to the rigid palpi of other Rhynchophora, the anten- 
hae are not elbowed, and the terminal joints rarely form a compact 
club. 
In form and general appearance, the larvae resemble the curculionid 
type. They can readily be distinguished, however, by the maxillary 
mala, which is divided into a galea and lacinia, the latter terminating 
in a chitinous spine. Also, the hypopharynx bears a heavy chitiniza- 
tion providing a grinding surface against the well-developed molar 
structures of the mandible. The legs are absent in some forms, but 
when present they may be one-, two-, or three-jointed. 
None of the species found in the United States is important from a 
forestry standpoint, but the family is mentioned here because several 
species, such as Veanthribus cornutus (Say), Eusphyrus walshii Lec., 
Ormiscus saltator Lec., and Huparius marmoreus (Oliv.), have been 
bred from woody fungi and the dead wood of hickory, beech, and 
maple. ‘The larvae cut circular, well-lke tunnels into the decaying 
wood directly beneath the sporophore, and also extend them up into the 
woody part of the fungus. 
Famity CURCULIONIDAE 
THE CURCULIOS, OR WEEVILS 
According to Imms (25/), the curculio family has more species 
than any other in the animal kingdom. Four-fifths of the species of 
the superfamily Curculionoidea belong to it. All the curculionids are 
typical snout beetles, the head being prolonged downward into a well- 
defined and usually curved beak. ‘The family is one of the most com- 
plex units, and has been subdivided into more than 60 subfamilies. 
These differ greatly in their characteristics and in their habits. There 
are species that breed in buds, flowers, fruit, stems, bark, wood, and 
roots, and a few even feed as leaf miners. Some of the larvae are 
capable of free locomotion, while others are relatively quiescent. 
Some are external feeders in the larval stage, whereas others are con- 
fined to protected places. The larvae of some species form pupal cells 
of their excrement in the place where they have fed, others form silken 
cocoons, and still others enter the soil and make an excavation of earth. 
The larvae of the leaf-mining snout beetles, such as those of the gen- 
era Rhynchaenus and Prionomerus, ave usually very flat, and do not 
resemble superficially the larvae of other weevils. The larvae of the 
eenus Smicronyx and some of Apion form galls in the buds, stems, and 
roots of various plants and complete their development in them. A 
few species of the latter have been recorded from birch, oak, willow, 
and locust. Others, such as the species of Curvculio and some of Cono- 
trachelus, are fruit burrowing and do great damage to hickory nuts, 
walnuts, etc. Only a comparatively small number of species attack 
woody plants in the Eastern States, but among them are some of the 
most important pests. The white-pine weevil, for example, is In many 
localities the most serious of all pests of the eastern white pine. The 
