SNOUT-BEETLES OR WEEVILS. 
127 
longed into a snout. Antennae usually capitate, rarely serrate or fili- 
form. Larvae mostly fructivorous. Families: Bruchidae, Antliribid®, 
Brenthidao, Ourculionidae. 
Tribe 2d (or 17th). Short-horned Wood-borers. Lignivora brevicornia. 
Xylophaga, Latreille. Head without snout; body short and cylindri- 
cal; antennae clavate or capitate, but little longer than the head ; larvaj 
lignivorous. Family : Scolytidae. 
Tribe 3d (or 18th). Long horned Wood-borers. Lignivora longicornia. 
Eucerata, Westwood. Body elongated ; antennae long and tapering, 
usually longer than head and thorax. Larvae lignivorous. Family : 
Cerambycidae. 
Tribe 4th (or 19th). Tetramerous Plant-beetles. Herbivora tetramera. 
Phytophaga, Kirby. Body usually short and rounded; antennae fili- 
form or slightly and gradually enlarged toward the end. Larvae herbi- 
vorous. Family: Ohrysomelidae, including the sub-families Criocerides, 
Galerucides, Eumolpides, Chrysomelides, Cryptocephalides, Hispides 
and Oassidides. 
Trios XVI. 
SNOUT-BEETLES, OR WEEVILS. 
Fructivora rostrata. Khynchophora, Latreille. 
This tribe of beetles, most of which are comprised in the family of 
Curculionidae, is supposed to be the most numerous in species, not only 
in the class of insects, but in the whole animal kingdom. The only 
question of the correctness of this estimate would be with respect to 
some of the families of microscopic animalcula, but here the superiority 
in number would probaibly be found to be in individuals only, and not 
in distinct species. The number of species of Curculionidae, specimens 
of which actuailly exist in the collections of Europe and of this country, 
does not vairy much from 20,000. The number of North American spe- 
cies enumerated in Mr. Crotch’s check list of 1873, is 414; and this cata- 
logue undoubtedly faills far short of the whole number, especially of tho 
smaller species. 
The prolongation of the head anteriorly, in the form of a slender 
snout, generally serves to distinguish the beetles of this tribe from all 
others. But in a considerable number the snout is so short and broad 
as not to afford a very distinguishing feature. In caises of doubt, there- 
fore, tho student must take other characters into account. The most 
important of these is tho usually rudimeutal state of palpi, and the four- 
jointed, cushioned, and bilobed tairsi. The antennae, in the great ma- 
jority, are knobbed at the end, and geniculate or bent like an elbow near 
the middle. 
