254 
BRITISH BEETLES. 
grass on sand-liills. 0. picipes (Plate XII. , Fig. 1) is 
one of the most abundant, frequently doing consider- 
able damage to young trees and plants ; it may be 
obtained in profusion by beating white-thorn hedges 
in spring. 
Some of our species, found in mountainous parts of 
the north, and others peculiar to the south coast, are 
shining black, and many of them congregate under 
stones, especially on turf-walls. Dr. Stierlin, in his 
“Revision of the European Otiorrhynchi,” Berlin, has 
fully described our species (amongst others). 
Strophosomus, and its allies (which as here regarded, 
for simplicity’s sake, answer in great measure to the old 
family Bracliyderidse, and include Polyd/rosus), have 
the antennae elbowed, with the basal joint variable 
in length, the funiculus usually seven-jointed, the 
scrobes of the rostrum generally linear, and directed 
downwards, the rostrum being short and stout, 
and not received into any groove of the proster- 
num; the mandibles are usually slender, the scu- 
tellurn is absent or very small, and the elytra cover 
the pygidium. 
There is nothing particularly noteworthy in this 
family, which consists of moderate-sized, mostly dull- 
coloured insects, many of which are apterous. The 
species of Strophosomus, globular in shape, with pro- 
minent eyes, usually abound on hazel and oak, some 
being also found on heaths ; one of these latter, 8. lim- 
hntus, has the appearance of being entirely denuded 
of scales. 
Some of the Bolydrosi are beautifully clothed with 
bright-green metallic scales, and are often mistaken 
for Phyllohii, from which they differ in their longer 
