470 DESCRIPTION OF THE MUSEUM. 



covering of their excrements. The larvae of the 

 cassidce have similar habits; their bodies are 

 spiny, and a posterior appendage supports the 

 substances with which they cover themselves. 

 This particular may easily be proved by observ- 

 ing the c. viridis, which is very common on the 

 leaves of artichokes, and which differs but little 

 from the c. equestris (n°3o,). The equatorial re- 

 gions of America abound most in species of this 

 genus. Their body is almost round in the form 

 of a buckler, elevated in the middle, and bor- 

 dered all round by the edge of the thorax and 

 wing-shells, and as they are flat beneath, they 

 fix themselves closely to the plants on which they 

 feed. The exterior angle of the basis of their 

 wing-shells is sometimes lengthened into a point, 

 which in the c. spinifex (n° 16) is perforated. 



The rhincophori, so called on account of the 

 length of their snout, are the first family of the 

 third division of the coleoptera. The principal 

 genus is that of the weevils (curculio), which has 

 been divided into several sub-genera. Few in- 

 sects are more destructive in their larva state than 

 these. The bruchus eats the seeds of several le- 

 guminous plants, those of coffee, and the kernels 

 of many stone-fruits. Two species, the curculio 

 granarius (n° i5) and c. orjzce (n° i4), when 

 they get into our granaries, are amongst the 



