BRXJCHID,E. 
349 
They are small, rarely exceeding one-quarter of an inch in length. 
Their colours are sombre and inconspicuous, the body clothed with hairs. 
The head is small with a blunt rostrum, with short antennae, often 
pectinate or serrate. The prothorax is well developed and accurately 
adapted to the mesothorax. The elytra are truncate, not covering the 
pygidium. The legs are short, the hind femora thickened. The abdomen 
is peculiarly thickset, giving the beetles a characteristic appearance. 
These beetles are commonly reared from the seeds of leguminous 
plants. The beetle lays a number of small oval eggs, of a yellow colour ; 
they are apparently laid in a semidiquid condition, so that they adhere 
to the seed or pod and then harden, (they have a curious resemblance 
to Scale insects of the genus Asterolecanium). In the field 
they are laid in the pod and in the case of Bruchus obtectus, Say, they 
are often dropped loosely among the seeds (Chittenden). These eggs 
hatch, the larva eating through the inner wall of the egg-shell into the 
Bruchid^e. —Pulse Beetles. 
Small thickset beetles, the hind legs thickened, the prosternum vertical, 
Tarsi apparently four-jointed, pilose below, third joint bilobed. 
Antennae eleven-jointed, often dentate or pectinate. 
These small beetles have a characteristic facies which distinguishes 
them from other Phytophaga, but confuses them with Anthribidce. 
Fig. 223. —Bruchus chinensis"; egg ox pea, x 2; larva, x 12 ; imago, x 10. 
