WEEVIL. 
65 
nourishing more than two of the young brood 
when hatched,) and this she does to five or six 
grains every day, for several days together: these 
eggs, not above the size of a grain of sand, in 
about seven days, produce a small white maggot 
or larva, which devours the substance of the grain 
in which it is lodged, and then changes into a 
chrysalis, from which, in about fourteen days, 
proceeds the complete insect. This is, perhaps, 
the insect mentioned by Virgil, among the animals 
injurious to corn. 
‘‘ —popidatque ingentanf arris acervmi 
Curculio.” 
Another species, which also makes its unwelcome 
appearance among corn, is the Curculio Jrumen- 
tarius. Its size is that of the granarius or JVeevily 
and its colour a bright red: it is an insect of great 
beauty, and is frequently seen during the autumnal 
season creeping about sunny walls, &c. 
Many of the exotic species are of very con- 
siderable size and possessed of great beauty of 
colour; but of all the insects of the genus Curculio, 
and e^ en (in the opinion of some entomologists), of 
all known insects, the most brilliant and beautiful 
is the Curculio imperialis or Imperial Curculio, 
commonly knoun by the name of the Diamond 
Beetle. It is a native of Brasil, and usually mea- 
sures about an inch in length: the ground-colour 
of the wing-sheaths is coal-black, but along each 
are distributed numerous parallel rows of sparkling 
concavities, of a round shape, and of a gold-green 
5 
V. VI. p. I. 
