COLEOPTERA. 



517 



The tribe of weevils is even much more numerous than that of 

 the Elateridtz and the BiiprestidcB. One may know them by their 

 head prolonged into a snout or trunk, by their rudimentary mouth, 

 and by their elbowed antenna. About twenty thousand species are 

 said to exist. They feed on vegetables. Their larvae are soft, 

 whitish worms, without legs, with very small heads, and live in the 

 interior of the stalks or seeds of plants, often occasioning enormous 

 damage. They are one of the plagues of agriculture. Each of our 

 dry vegetables, each variety of our cereals, has in this immense family 

 its particular enemy. 



First are the Bi'iichi. The Pea Weevil [Bruchus pisi, Fig. 556), 

 which is brown with white spots, comes out of the pea at the end of 

 the summer. The female lays her eggs on peas which are ripe, and 

 still standing, in which the larva scoops out a habitation, and then 



Fig. 556.— Pea Weevil {Bruchus fist), magnified. Fig. 557.— Pea pierced by the larva. 



makes its exit by a circular hole (Fig, 557). It remains at rest all 

 the winter, and is not hatched till towards the following spring. The 

 Bean Weevil {Bruchus riifimanus) marks each bean with many black 

 spots. The vetch has also its special Bruchus. The Wheat Weevil 

 {Calandra gra?iaria), of a darkish brown, lays its eggs on the grains, 

 of which the larvae then eat the interior. A host of ways of getting 

 rid of the weevil have been proposed. The best means is to store 

 corn properly, and to keep the heap well aired. Let us mention 

 further, the Clover Weevil, belonging to the genus Apion, the Weevil 

 of the Rape {Ceutorhynchus brassiccB), the Turnip Weevil, &c., &c. 



All vegetables, the vine, fruit trees, the ash, pines, &c., are eaten 

 by some weevil or other. As an example we give a figure of the 

 spotted Pissodes pini, which, as the figure shows, takes the precaution 

 of cutting half through the young stems and the stalks of the buds 

 of the pine, '' so as," says M. Maurice Girard,* '' that the sap flows 



♦ " Metamorphoses des Insectes," p. 116. 



