SNOUT-BEETLES OR WEEVILS. 
129 
[ Fig. 59. ] (Bahia, Saxinis and Goscinoptera,) resemble 
them in these characters, thus showing the 
close relationship between the two families. 
The present family contains the well known 
pea and bean weevils, which are often very 
seriously injurious to these crops. The pea- 
bugs make their appearance and deposit 
their eggs in the early part of the summer, 
and as they have but one brood in a sea- 
BrUCHUS pisi, Liun.: — a, beetle eu- . , . , , , , 
larged, the small outline showing son, we can obtain sound seed by planting 
natural size ; b, a pea from which the , , , . ,, , „ T 
beetle lias escapeu — after Kiley. peas as late as tlie first Ol JllUe* 
The family contains but a few geuera, and all our injurious species 
belong to the genus Bruchus, Linn.* 
The most notorious species are the pea- weevil (Bruchus pisi, Linn.); 
the bean- weevil (B. obsoletus, Sa.y), and the grain -bruchus (B. granarius, 
Linn.) The latter is a European species which has been imported in 
small numbers into this country. 
Family LVI. ANTHRIBIILE. 
This and the following'family are really only sub divisions of the great 
Curculio family, from which it is. distinguished by the presence of an 
upper lip and palpi, and the straight anteume. The larv® inhabit the 
seeds and stems of plants, and some have short but well developed feet. 
The larvae of the genus Bracliytarsus, which is composed of very small 
species, are found under the scales of bark-lice, and are supposed to be 
parasitic, thus presenting a remarkable anomaly in this tribe of. beetles. 
The species are much more numerous than the Bruchidm, but noue of 
them have proved injurious to cultivated crops. The name is derived 
from the Greek antlios — a flower, and tribo — to destroy. 
The following are the four principal genera : 
A. Thorax with a transverse ridgo in front of the posterior margin Thopideuks, 2 sp. 
A A. Thorax without transverse ridge. 
B. Body oblong oval ; rostrum with parallel sides. 
C. Anterior coxae rather widely separated; eyes small and finely granulated Anthribus, 2 
C C. Anterior ooxie but slightly separated ; eyes large and coarsely granulated. . .Cratopaius, 3. 
B B. Body short ; size small ; rostrum cut obliquely Brachytausus, 5. 
*ln Mr. Crotch’s Check list the generic name Mylabris, of GeoflVoy, is substituted for Bruchus, Linn. 
The former term, derived from the Greek mu-le — a grain-mill, was applied by the Greeks to some kind 
of insect found in mills and baking houses, and supposed by some to have been a species of Blatta, or 
cockroach, and by others, the common meal-worm or larva of the Tcncbrio molitor „• but was applied by 
GootTroy to the beetles of the present family. A few years later, Linmnus, having overlooked the 
name given by GeotlYoy, re-described these insects under the name of Bruchus , also an ancient Greek 
name of some kind of insect, supposed to have been a species of locust, but which cannot now bo deter- 
mined with certainty. As these insects feed upon grain and other seeds, the name given by Geoftrov 
has the claim of appropriateness, as well as of priority, but the term Bruchus has becomo established 
by universal adoption and long continued usage, so that, like many other words, it may be said to 
have acquired a meaniug of its own, independent of its origin. 
