COLEOPTERA. 57 



carried home from America, having in view the whole damage 

 which his heloved country would have suffered, if only two or 

 three of these noxious insects had escaped him. They are now 

 common in the South of Europe and in England, whither they 

 may have been carried from this country. As the cultivated pea 

 was not originally a native of America, it would be interesting to 

 ascertain what plants the pea-weevil formerly inhabited. That it 

 should have preferred the prolific exotic pea to any of our indi- 

 genous and less productive pulse, is not a matter of surprise, anal- 

 ogous facts being of common occurrence ; but that, for so many 

 years, a rational method for checking its ravages should not have 

 been practised, is somewhat remarkable. An exceedingly simple 

 one is recommended by Deane, but to be successful it should be 

 universally adopted. It consists merely in keeping seed-pease 

 in tight vessels over one year before planting them. Latreille 

 and others recommend putting them, just before they are to be 

 planted, into hot water for a minute or two, by which means the 

 weevils will be killed, and the sprouting of the pease will be 

 quickened. The insect is limited to a certain period for deposit- 

 ing its eggs ; late sown pease therefore escape its attacks. The 

 late Colonel Pickering observed that those sown in Pennsylvania 

 as late as the 20th of May, were entirely free from weevils ; and 

 Colonel Worthington, of Rensselaer county, New York, who 

 sowed his pease on the 10th of June, six years in succession, 

 never found an insect in them during that period. 



The crow black-bird is said to devour great numbers of the 

 beetles in the spring ; and the Baltimore oriole or hang-bird 

 splits open the green pods for the sake of the grubs contained in 

 the pease, thereby contributing greatly to prevent the increase of 

 these noxious insects. The instinct that enables this beautiful 

 bird to detect the lurking grub, concealed, as the latter is, within 

 the pod and the hull of the pea, is worthy our highest admiration ; 

 and the goodness of Providence, which has endowed it with this 

 faculty, is still further shown in the economy of the insects also, 

 which, through His prospective care, are not only limited in the 

 season of their depredations, but are instinctively taught to spare 

 the germs of the pease, thereby securing a succession of crops for 

 our benefit and that of their own progeny. 

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