132 
THE ORDER OF COLEOPTERA. 
fruit-like galls, yet there is no part of a plant which is not inhabited by 
the larvas of some one or other of their numerous species. 
The snout-beetles consequently furnish a greater number of species 
which are injurious to the agriculturist than any other family of beetles. 
In depositing their eggs the females first puncture a hole with their 
snouts, then drop an egg at the aperture, and lastly with the aid of the 
proboscis push the egg to the bottom of the cavity. In harmony with 
this mode of egg-deposit is the organic character observed in many spe- 
cies, of the female having a proboscis considerably longer than that of the 
male ; of which our Apple-curculio (Anthonomus i-gibbus) furnishes an 
example. * 
The classification of the Curculionidae, on account of their great num- 
bers and the small size of the great majority of them, taken in connec- 
tion with the rudimental state of some of the organs, namely, the labrum 
and the palpi, which, in other insects, often furnish valuable generic 
characters, presents a difficult study which will tax both the patience 
and the ingenuity of the student. 
They are divided primarily into two large sections, according to the 
length of the rostrum or snout, and the point of insertion of the anten- 
na*, and designated as the Brevirostres or short-snouted Curculios, and 
the Longirostres or long-snouted Curculios. These sections not being 
sharply separated from each other in nature, Lacordaire has adopted, 
as the basis of the primary division of the Curculiouida*, the relative 
position of certain parts of the mouth ; but these parts are often so 
minute and obscure that the characters derived from them are very diffi- 
* In a paper on the systematic value of the Rhynchophora, read before the National Academy of 
Sciences, at Washington, Jan.,24, 1867, Dr. LeConte adduces this liabit of the Curoulionidro of pushing 
their ova into the cavities prepared for them by means of the rostrum or beak, as an evidence ot deg- 
radation or inferiority of type. “ It was reserved,” he says, “for the Rhynchophora to exhibit a degra- 
dation of type, by which a function, peculiarly appropriate to the posterior extremity of the body, is 
performed by tbe head : the elongated beak becoming in fact the ovipositor.” 
Dr. George H. Horn, in an article upon the Curculionidie, contributed to the American Philosophical 
Society, Sept. 19, 1873, in describing the species of the genus Balaninus, states that tho females have a 
slender ovipositor, which they are capable of extending to half the length of their bodies, and that ho 
possesses a specimen with the ovipositor protruded, and an egg seized by its tip. From this ho infers 
that tho Balaniui, and probably other Curculionidie also, use their beaks only to make the perforation 
into which the egg is to be deposited, but that the act of inserting the egg is done in the ordinary way 
by the ovipositor. 
The fact, however, that many, (if not all) of the Longirostres, or long-snouted Curculios, use tlioir 
beaks to force their ova to tho bottom of the cavities prepared for them, is too well attestod to admit 
of question. Several species of Rhynchites and Anthonomus are described as thus ovipositing, in Kol- 
lar's Treatise, (page 238, et. seq.); and the common Plum-cuiculio, ( Gonolrachelus nenuphar), is known 
to practice tho same method. (See Practical Entomologist, vol. 2, pago 115.) 
But the argument above stated to prove the relative inferiority of tho Rhynchophora, appears to me 
more fanciful than real. The great majority of Coleoptera have neither beak nor ovipositor, and simpl 
deposit their eggs upon tho surface of the substances upon which, or within which, their larvm are to 
reside. The additional precautions taken by the Rhynchophora to ensure the preservation of their 
eggs and the welfare of their offspring, would seem to furnish a moro certain proof of superiority ot 
instinct, than of any systematic degradation. 
