26G 
BRITISH BEETLES. 
The tribe Balaninina is very remarkable from the 
fact that its members, which all belong to one genus, 
are distinguished not only from all the other Bhyncho- 
phora, but from all known Colcoptera, by the fact that 
the mandibles have a vertical instead of a horizontal 
motion. 
In the genus Balaninus the rostrum is very long, 
slender, and arched, sometimes nearly as long as the 
body, and the prosternum considerably elongate 
between the front coxae. To it belongs the “ nut- 
weevil 5 ’ before mentioned, the larva of which is so 
well known. The female deposits a single egg in 
the nut when the latter is very young, and has been 
stated to use her long beak as a drill in that opera- 
tion. The larva, which leaves the vital part of the 
fruit until the last, when arrived at its full growth, 
bores a hole through the shell and drops to the 
ground, into which it burrows prior to turning into 
pupa. 
Other species operate in a similar way upon acorns 
(B. glanclium), and the kernels of certain wild Pruni 
(B. cerasorum, found in the perfect state on birch). 
The larvae of one of the smallest, B. brassiose, have been 
observed to live in red galls on the leaves of willows, 
the formation of which has even been attributed to 
this insect, though it appears most probable that they 
are the work of one of the Hymenoptera. Another, 
B. villosus (Plate XII., Fig. 2, head and rostrum 
sideways, 2a), not uncommon on the oak, has been 
reai’ed from larvae found in galls formed by a Cynips 
on the leaves of that tree. 
The Calandrina are here represented by one genus, 
Calandra, containing two species, gran aria and oryzse, 
