This, however, is not universal in the family, and it occurs in some other beetles (_e.g._, Megalopodides of the Phytophaga). The larvae are without legs. They are vegetarian, the eggs being deposited by the mother-beetle in the midst of the food. These larvae may be distinguished from those of Longicorns by the general form, which is sub-cylindric or rather convex, not flattened, and more particularly by the free, exserted head, the mouth being directed downwards; the attitude is generally a curve, and the anterior part of the body is a little the thicker. No part of plants is exempt from the attacks of the larvae of Curculionidae; buds, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruits, bark, pith, roots and galls may each be the special food of some Curculionid. Certain species of the sub-families Rhynchitides and Attelabides prepare leaves in an elaborate manner to serve as food and dwelling for their young. If young birches, or birch bushes from 5 to 10 feet in height, be looked at in the summer, one may often notice that some of the leaves are rolled so as to form, each one, a little funnel. This is the work of _Rhynchites_ (or _Deporaus_) _betulae_, a little Curculionid beetle (Fig. 149). An inspection of one of these funnels will show that it is very skilfully constructed. {292}[Illustration: Fig. 149.—The leaf-rolling of _Rhynchites betulae_. Britain. A, Female beetle, magnified; B, the beetle forming the first incision on a leaf; C, the completed roll. (B and C after Debey.)] The whole of a leaf is not used in the formation of a funnel, cuts being made across the leaf in suitable directions. The beetle standing on a leaf, as shown in the figure, proceeds to cut with its mandibles an incision shaped like an erect S, commencing at a certain part of the circumference, and ending at the midrib of the leaf; the beetle then goes to the other side of the midrib, and continues its incision so as to form another S-like curve considerably different from the first; being prostrate and less abrupt. Thus the blade of the leaf is divided into two halves by certain curved incisions, the midrib remaining intact. The little funnel-twister now commences to roll up the leaf to form the funnel; and this part of the work is greatly facilitated by the shape of the incisions. Going back to the spot where it commenced work, by the aid of its legs it rolls one side of the leaf round an ideal axis, somewhat on the same plan as that adopted by a grocer in forming a paper-funnel for sugar. The incisions are found to be just of the right shape to make the overlaps in the rolling, and to retain them rolled-up with the least tendency to spring back. After some other operations destined to facilitate subsequent parts of its task, the beetle enters the rolled-up part of the leaf and brings it more perfectly together; it again comes out and, pursuing a different system, holds on with the legs of one side of the body {293}to the roll, and with the other