316 Observations on Insects affecting (Jie 2\irnip Crojjs. 



were also forwarded to me, each being punctured, and on opening 

 them I found only one seed untouched, and two that were but 

 shghtly eroded ; others were half consumed, and many entirely 

 eaten up — a hard gummy substance of a dark colour enclosing 

 the spot occupied by the maggots, which might be the dung com- 

 pressed by the animal : but to connect these circumstances satis- 

 factorily with the maggots, it is necessary to state that one of them 

 was found in a pod : the maggots are fat and yellowish white, the 

 body is formed of numerous convex muscles, the head is pale 

 brown (figs. 26 and 27) : they buried themselves 2 or 3 inches 

 beneath the surface, and enclosed themselves in brown oval 

 cocoons (hg. 29), which were very brittle, and formed of the 

 agglutinated grains of earth, and in one I found the pupa (fig. 30) ; 

 it was of a dull ochraceous tint, the eyes black, and on being 

 magnified, the rostrum, legs, and v/ing-cases were very distinct 

 (fig. 31). After remaining three weeks in this inanimate state 

 the beetles began to hatch, and by the 21st of July nearly twenty 

 specimens were liberated : they proved to be a small Weevil which 

 is abundant during the summer in the flowers of the turnip, cab- 

 bage, and other cruciferous plants, the wild-mignonette (Reseda 

 lutea?), Sec, and no doubt deposits its eggs at that time in the 

 embryo pods. It belongs to tlie Order Coleoptera, of the 

 Family Curculionid^, or Weevils, and is called, by entomolo- 

 gists of the j)resent day, 



10. Ceutorhynchus assimilis, Payk,* the Turnip-seed Weevil ; 

 it is also known as the Curculio obstrictus of Marsham. It is 

 black, clothed with short white depressed hairs above and scales 

 beneath, which give the insect a grey tinge ; rostrum long, slender, 

 and arched, smooth and naked towards the apex, furnished with 

 two geniculated or kneed horns, placed on each side a little be- 

 yond the middle, composed of twelve joints, the basal joint long, 

 the seven following short and nearly globose, excepting the second 

 and third, the terminal ones forming an ovate- conic club, hoary 

 at the apex ; eyes placed on each side at the base of the rostrum ; 

 thorax triangular, the anterior part being the narrowest and 

 truncated, the margin reflexed, thickly and coarsely punctured, 

 with a tubercle on each side somewhat towards the base ; there is 

 an impression down the middle terminating in a fovea behind, 

 with a short channel in the breast to receive the rostrum in re- 

 pose ; elytra short and ovate, with about eight fine channels on 

 each, the interstices punctured ; wings ample ; legs rather short ; 

 thighs thickish, narrowed suddenly towards the apex, the hinder 

 have a single short tooth beneath ; shanks straightish, the apex 

 rounded and pectinated ; feet four-jointed, two basal joints some- 



* Curtis's Guide, Gen. 345, No. 43. 



