CURCULIONIM. 
389 
The life-history occupies six weeks ; many larvae are found in the same 
plant, which dies, and the loss in young plants is extensive. 
Crypto rhynchin ce.—Pachy onyx quodridens, Chevr., is found breeding 
in the dhak plant IButea f rondos a) in Northern India. Cryptorhynchus 
contains the mango weevils of India, 
of which C. gravis , Fabr., is the com¬ 
mon form in Eastern Bengal and 
Assam, C. wangiferce, F., in South 
India and Ceylon. Both breed in the 
stone of the mango, the eggs being laid 
in the young fruit, the larva on 
maturity eating through the pulp 
and emerging to pupate in the soil. 
There is but one brood yearly of 
the former and the weevils remain 
dormant from July or August to the 
following March—April in concealment 
in the ground and in or on the bark 
of trees. 
Desmidophorus contains several sub-tropical species, D. hebes , Fabr., 
also occurring in Behar, where it is occasionally found in abundance 
on garden Hibiscus. 
Zygopince.—Phcenomerus sundevalli, Bch., is a small linear beetle, 
resembling an elongate rice weevil, found in the plains. Metialma 
includes two species, M. scenica, Pasc., and M. balsamince Paso., the 
latter having been reared from larvae found boring in the stems of 
balsams ; the larva tunnels in the soft tissues and pupates in a cocoon 
formed of fibres twisted into an oval shape. 
We figure a Phylaitis (Plate XXVII), common in the stems of mal- 
vaceous plants, which attacks cotton severely and specially tree cottons. 
It was a serious enemy to tree cottons in Behar and is destructive in 
South India, the larva? boring in the stems, forming a thick swelling 
and eventually so weakening the plants that they break off or die. Its 
distribution appears to be a limited one, as it is not a widespread pest 
of cotton. 
Fig. 265.— Cryptorhynchus 
gravis. 
