30 IXSECTS AFFECTING STOEED PBODTJCTS. 
than the German one used by Taschenberg. He calls it the " Get- 
reide-Kapuciner " — the significance of which name is apparent to 
anyone familiar with the appearance of the insects of this and related 
genera. The object of the likeness is the hoodlike prothorax covering 
the insect's head. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIES. 
This is one of the smallest of the beetles which are injurious to 
grain in the kernel, being considerably shorter and narrower than 
the grain weevils. The beetle is about one-eighth of an inch long and 
about one-thirty-second of an inch in width, quite narrow, being 
therefore, approximately, four times as long as wide. The form is 
nearly cylindrical; the head is comparatively 
large and prominent, and bent down under the 
thorax in the manner peculiar to most mem- 
bers of the family Bostrvchida? : the antenna* 
^'i&Sjjl ^ & are also prominent, as are the eyes and the 
mandibles. The antenna? are ten-jointed and 
terminate in a prominent three- jointed club. 
The color is dark brown or castaneous and 
polished throughout. 
Fig. 7. — The lesser grain- ™ , , T . 
borer (Rhiz opert h a do- J- he beetle is shown in figure i. with the 
minica) : Beetle, with antennae, much enlarged, at the right. 
enlarged antenna at rm ..,, • ,'• P .-, • 
right. Beetle about J- ne original description oi this species, ac- 
12 times natarai size. cording to M. P. Lesne, was published by 
Fabricius in 1792, antedating the Synodendron 
jyiisillus of the same writer, by which specific name (Rhkopertlia 
pusilla) the insect has generally found mention until very recent 
years. The description reads as follows: 
S[ynodendron]. lreve nigrum obscuruni elytris striatis, pedibus piceis. 
Habitat in America meridional! Dom. Pflug. 
The more important synonyms, according to M. Lesne and others, 
are as follows: 
Synodendron dominicum Fab., Ent. Syst., vol. 1, pt. 2. p. 359. 1792. 
Synodendron pusillum Fab., Suppl. Ent. Syst., p. 156. 1798. 
Ptinus piceus Marshal. Ent. Brit., vol. 1. p. 88, 1802. 
Rhyzopertha pusilla Fab.. Stephens, Illus. Brit. Ent., vol. 3, p. 354, 1830. 
Apate rufa Hope, Trans. Ent. Soc. London, vol. 4, p. 17, 1845. 
A'patc frumentaria (Xi-ird linger) Motschulsky, Etudes Entomologiques. p. 7S, 
1857. 
Dinoderus pusillus Fab., Horn, Proe. Amer. Phil. Soc, vol. 17, p. 550. 1S7S. 
Rhisopertha dominiea Fab.. Lesne. Ann. Soc. Ent. France, vol. 60, p. 332, 
1898. 
For convenience the description of the earlier stages will be given 
in a later chapter (pp. 35-36). 
