75 
10BSERYATI0NS OF THE FOOD OF THE SNOUT BEE¬ 
TLES. 
(Bhynchophora.) 
It seems to have been generally supposed that the principal 
damage to corn by the “bill bugs” (Sphenophori) is done by 
sucking the sap,*—a supposition of which my field observations 
have given me no proof, and which I have consequently tested by 
dissection, f Finding the facts thus ascertained of some interest, 
X have extended my observations to other snout beetles, and pre¬ 
sent here a summary of the results. 
Examples of Rhynchites bicolor , a snout beetle of medium size, 
taken from the rose July 7, 1885, contained a considerable quan¬ 
tity of netted-vein vegetation, fragments of which were still green, 
the cells containing chlorophyl grains. The vascular tissue was 
wholly made up of spiral cells clearly derived only from the 
i leaves of the plant. There was, however, no epidermal tissue 
nresent. These beetles had evidently been feeding on the leaves 
I x 
of the rose. 
An example of Rhynchites hirtus was taken July 6, 1884, on one 
of the common rosin weeds, Silphium iniegrifolium. Many of the 
stems of this plant had been partly cut through about three or 
four inches from the top, so that the part above the cut hung 
down, partly withered. In each case where the injury seemed to 
be recent, a specimen of the above Bhyncliites was found among 
the half-withered leaves, tliQ beetles having their beaks buried in 
the stems. No eggs or larvae were discovered; and I can only 
surmise that the stem may have been deadened by the cut to 
soften the tissue, or to prevent the too rapid flow of the gummy 
sap. 
The crop of the specimen taken in this situation was filled with 
a mass of vegetation containing large numbers of spinous hairs 
and spiral vessels. In the intestine was a smaller quantity ot the 
same material. These tissues were evidently derived from the 
plant on which the beetles were found. 
Another example of this species of Rhynchites (“taken on 
flowers” July 23, 1885) contained an abundance of spherical pollen 
covered with very acute long spines and some of it imbedded in 
fragments of anther tissue. 
*Rep. Ent.U. S. Dept. Agr., 1882, p. 139; Rep. State Ent. N., Y., 1882, p.254. 
fSee page 70. 
