THE CORN- WEEVIL. 433 



and devouring their food. They are so extremely voracious, that 

 when other food is scarce, they will sometimes eat even their own 

 species. 



In order to change into the pupa state, they attach themselves by 

 their fleshy feet, to the leaves or branches of trees. Here tliey drop 

 a small quantity of glutinous liquor, which fixes them to the spot, 

 and, in a position contrary to that of tne plane to which they adheie. 

 Little by little their body contracts, and at the end of two or three 

 days they undergo their transformation. In freeing themselves from 

 their skin, they make it pass towards the hinder part of their body^ 

 where it continues like a little pellet. 



The pupoe. are beautifully spotted with black and other colors. The 

 only motion observable in them, is that of alternately elevating and 

 depressing their body, particularly if touched. They finally quit 

 their envelope in about six days after this last change. When they 

 first come into the world as perfect insects, their wing-cases are of a 

 yellowish white color, soft and flexible. These soon harden by their 

 contact with the external air; and shortly afterwards assume their 

 proper spots and colors. 



Lady Bugs have in France the name oi Bete a Dieu, Vache-d-Dieu, 

 and Bete de la Vierge. 



OF THE CURCULIO, OR WEEVIL TRIBE. 



The larvce of the Weevils, like those of other coleopterous in- 

 sects, have each six legs and a scaly head. They have a resem- 

 blance to oblong soft worms. Some of them infest granaries, where, 

 from their numbers and voracity, they often commit great ravages 

 among the corn: some live in fruits, the insides of artichokes, thistles, 

 and other plants; and others devour the leaves of trees and vege- 

 tables. 



One division of the Weevils feed on trees and shrubs, inserting 

 their beaks into the tender branches, and by this means extracting 

 their juices. The Gurculio alliaricB has been observed with its beak 

 plunged into the twig of a crab-tree, as far as the place whence the 

 antennae arise. Another division feed solely on plants. Others live 

 on grain, wood, and on some of the species of fungi ; and a few under 

 the surface of the earth. 



THE CORN WEEVIL. 



The Corn Weevil is well known to most farmers, from the devas- 

 tation that it makes in their granaries. The parent insect lays its 

 eggs in grains of corn, probably one in each grain. Here the larvae, 

 on being hatched, continue for some time to live, and it is very diffi- 

 cult to discover them, as they lie concealed within. They increase 

 their size, and with it their iwelling, at the expense of the interior or 

 31 



