SNOTTT-BEETLES OR WEEVILS. 
131 
ilar larvae having been found by himself in company with the Brenthi- 
ans, and which he conjectures to be those of the Strongylivm tenuicolle, 
Say. 
The Northern Brentlius is frequently found under the bark of different 
kinds of oak, in an incipient state of decay, but the larvae are genuine 
wood-borers penetrating into the heart wood, usually of dead, but some- 
times of living trees. The beetles vary from one-third to two-thirds of 
an inch in length. They are of a maliogony-brown color, with the elytra 
deeply grooved, and marked with linear spots of a tawny-yellow color. 
The male and female differ remarkably in the shape of the snout, as 
shown in the accompanying figures. 
The species was first described by Drury from a small specimen, under 
the name of Brenthus minutus, and it is now included in the sub-genus 
Eup8a.Ua of Lacordaire, which the author admits to be scarcely distinct 
from Arrhenodes , Sch. It has usually been referred to under the appro- 
priate name of Brenthus ( ArrhenodesJ septentrionis , (or more properly, 
scptentrionalis) of Herbst, which is equivalent to the common name of 
the Northern Brenthus. 
Family LVIII. CURCULIONID^E. 
This is the extensive family of snout-beetles, properly so called. The 
statements made in describing the tribe of Ithynchophora, of which they 
compose by far the larger part, had reference chiefly to the Curcu- 
lionidie, * and need not beliere repeated. Their bodies are always of an 
oval form, never being very much elongated or depressed. The snout 
varies extremely, being sometimes short and broad, and sometimes as 
long as the body and almost as slender as ahair. Their most important 
organic character is the negative one ot the absence of the labrum and 
the rudimental condition of the palpi. Like all the plant-eating Tetra- 
mera their tarsi are clothed with a dense brush of short stiff hair on the 
under side, and the last joint but one is strongly bilobed. Another very 
distinctive character is the bent or elbowed form of the antenna*, which 
is caused by the first joint being much longer than the others, and form- 
ing an angle with them. The antenme are almost always knobbed at 
the end. The larva) are soft and white, slightly narrowed at each ex 
tremity, and usually lying in a curved position. They are always desti- 
tute of feet, but in their place we often find little elevations or papillae 
which are sometimes surmounted by a coronet of fine bristles. They 
always occupy the substance of plants, and therefore require but little 
locomotion. Though they are emphatically the occupants of fruits and 
* Ourculio was tho anciont name of some kind of corn-worm, 
