. Coleoptera : general introduction and Cicindelidae and Paussidae. e for themost part geniculate. At present this is a vast and hopeless complex containing some20,000 to 30,000 species. As a rule the members of the familyare easily distinguished by the pronounced rostrum and geniculateantennas, but exceptions occur, and very rarely (e. g., in suchAustralian genera as Amycterus, Psalidura, Acantholophus, etc.) C17ECULIONIDJ3, L95 the rostrum is so short as to be almost absent. In the vastmajority of species the palpi are very remarkable for their minute-ness and rigidity ; this is due to their
. Coleoptera : general introduction and Cicindelidae and Paussidae. e for themost part geniculate. At present this is a vast and hopeless complex containing some20,000 to 30,000 species. As a rule the members of the familyare easily distinguished by the pronounced rostrum and geniculateantennas, but exceptions occur, and very rarely (e. g., in suchAustralian genera as Amycterus, Psalidura, Acantholophus, etc.) C17ECULIONIDJ3, L95 the rostrum is so short as to be almost absent. In the vastmajority of species the palpi are very remarkable for their minute-ness and rigidity ; this is due to their position at the apex of therostrum, a point often overlooked by the ordinary student; butin JVemonyc/ms and a few other genera they are more or lessflexible. The life-history of many members of the group is well are entirely vegetable feeders and the larvae are leglessmaggots; occasionally they do enormous damage to crops ofvarious kinds, and no part of the plants, from the root to theflower, is free from attack. Their habits are very varied ; certain. Fig. 01.—Trotocerius grandis (natural size). species form galls, others form cocoons resembling galls ; a largenumber undergo their transformations in the capsules of variousplants, while others in the larval state mine the parenchyma ofthe leaves. Species of Attelabus and Rhynchites lay their eggssimply on the leaves, attaching them to their surface by a viscoussubstance, and then roll the leaves over them so as to form a nestor shelter. In other cases the female deposits her eggs in thefreshly set fruits of Pomaces or Amygdalaceoe, or in fresh shoots 196 INTRODUCTION. of deciduous trees ;in such cases she partly cuts through thestem, so that the fruit or shoot falls at about the time thatthe larva is full grown aud ready to undergo its further trans-formations, which take place underground. A large number of Curculionid larva? change to pupae under theearth, but this is by no means always the case ; the speciesbel
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbeetles, bookyear1912
