332 THE UNIVERSE. 



and the enormous consumption which they occasion, not- 

 withstanding their minute size, demonstrate the unfortunate 

 exactness of these figures. An experimenter, having in- 

 closed a dozen male and a dozen female weevils in a box of 

 wheat, found that these minute beetles, which are only 

 about the tenth of an inch long, had at the close of six 

 months brought forth an innumerable progeny, and had 

 with their assistance eaten thirty-three pounds avoirdupois 

 of the grain in which they were inclosed. It has accord- 

 ingly been calculated that this little weevil 1 alone devours 

 more than 300,000 bushels of wheat in the granaries of 

 Europe. 



1 The one most injurious to the farmer is the Calandra granaria, or "corn- 

 weevil," which lives in stored grain, whether it be wheat, barley, oats, maize, or 

 rice. Early in the spring, as soon as the weather is warm enough, for being 

 natives of southern regions they do not like cold, the beetles pair, and as soon 

 as the female is impregnated she buries herself in the heap of corn, makes a 

 puncture through the skin of one of the grains, and there deposits her eggs, one 

 only in each grain. The hole is not perpendicular to the surface, but runs ob- 

 liquely, or cx - en parallel to it, and the small aperture is closed by her excrement. 

 The eggs, then, are safe, even if the grain be moved about. The maggots soon 

 hatch and feed upon the contents of the grain, until the husk alone is left, which 

 lasts them until they have arrived at maturity and changed to pupas. In about 

 six to eight weeks from the time of impregnation the perfect weevil is produced, 

 which eats its way through the husk, and is then ready to propagate its species. 

 In five months a pair of weevils have been known to produce 6045 individuals, 

 each of which required for its cradle a grain of the farmer's crop. Owing to the 

 workmanlike manner in which the female deposits her eggs, it is very difficult to 

 detect their presence in the grain, which is generally not discovered until the per- 

 fect animals are seen walking over the heap, when the empty husks are readily 

 picked out. The specific gravity being much lighter than sound grains, they 

 may always be discovered if placed in a basin of water, the sound grains sink- 

 ing, and these floating on the surface. Our Farm Crops, by John Wilson, 

 F. R. S. E. 



