COLEOPTERA. 69 



these, we see the care of the Creator for some of the least of his 

 creatures, which He has wisely provided with variable instincts, 

 enabling them to accommodate themselves to the difficulties of the 

 situation in which they may happen to be placed, and thus, even 

 in unfruitful seasons, to provide for a succession of their kind. 



The following, among other remedies that have been suggested, 

 may be found useful in checking the ravages of the plum-weevil. 

 Let the trees be briskly shaken or suddenly jarred every morning 

 and evening during the time that the insects appear in the beetle 

 form, and are engaged in laying their eggs. When thus disturbed 

 they contract their legs and fall ; and, as they do not immediately 

 attempt to fly or crawl away, they may be caught in a sheet spread 

 under the tree, from which they should be gathered into a large 

 wide-mouthed bottle or other tight vessel, and be thrown into the 

 fire. All the fallen wormy plums should be immediately gathered, 

 and, after they are boiled or steamed, to kill the enclosed grubs, 

 they may be given as food to swine. The diseased excrescences 

 should be cut out and burned every year before the last of June. 

 The moose plum-tree (Prunus Americana), which grows wild in 

 Maine, seems to escape the attacks of insects, for no warts are 

 found upon it, even when growing in the immediate vicinity of 

 diseased foreign trees. It would, therefore, be the best of stocks 

 for budding or engrafting upon. It can easily be raised from the 

 stone, and grows rapidly, but does not attain a great size. For 

 further suggestions and remarks, the account of this insect by 

 Dr. Joel Burnett, in the eighteenth volume of the " New England 

 Farmer," may be consulted. 



The most pernicious of the Rhynchophorians, or snout-beetles, 

 are the insects properly called grain-weevils, belonging to the old 

 genus Calandra. These insects must not be confounded with the 

 still more destructive larva? of the corn-moth [Tinea granella), 

 which also attacks stored grain, nor with the orange-colored mag- 

 gots of the wheat-fly (Cecidomyia Tritici), which are found in the 

 ears of growing wheat. Although the grain- weevils are not 

 actually injurious to vegetation, yet as the name properly belong- 

 ing to them has often been misapplied in this country, thereby 

 creating no little confusion, sdme remarks upon them may tend to 

 prevent future mistakes. 



The true grain-weevil or wheat-weevil of Europe, Calandra 



