COLEOrTERA. 55 



minute whitish grub, destitute of feet, will l)e found therein. 

 It is the weevil in its larva form, wliieii lives upon the marrow 

 of the pc^, and arrives at its full size by the time that the pea 

 becomes dry. This larva or grub tlien bores a round hole from 

 the hollow in the centre of the pea quite to the hiill,])ut leaves 

 the latter and generally the germ of the future sprout un- 

 touched. Hence these buggy pease, as they are called by 

 seedsmen and gardeners, will frequently sprout and grow when 

 planted. The grub is changed to a pupa within its hole in 

 the pea in the autumn, and before the spring casts its skin 

 again, becomes a beetle, and gnaws a hole through the thin 

 hull in order to make its escape into the air, which frequently 

 does not happen before the pease are planted for an early crop. 

 After the pea-vines have flowered, and while the pods are 

 young and tender, and the pease within them, are just begin- 

 ning to swell, the beetles gather upon them, and deposit their 

 tiny eggs singly in the punctures or wounds w^hich they make 

 upon the surface of the pods. This is done mostly during the 

 night, or in cloudy weather. The grubs, as soon as they are 

 hatched, peneti-ate the pod and bury themselves in the opposite 

 pease; and the holes through which they pass into the seeds 

 are so fine as hardly to be perceived, and are soon closed. 

 Sometimes every pea in a pod will be found to contain a 

 weevil-grub; and so great has been the injury to the crop, in 

 some parts of the country, that the inhabitants have been 

 obliged to give up the cultivation of this vegetable.* These 

 insects diminish the weight of the pease in Avhich they lodge 

 nearly one half, and their leavings, are fit only for the food of 

 swine. This occasions a great loss, where pease are raised for 

 feeding stock or for family use, as they are in many places. 

 Those persons who eat whole pease in the winter after they 

 are raised, run the risk of eating the weevils also; but if the 

 pease are kept till they are a year old, the insects will entu-ely 

 leave them.f 



* See Kalm's Travels. 8vo. Warrington. 1770- Vol. I. p. 173. 

 t See the Boston Cultivator for July 1, 1848, for an interesting account of the 

 habits of these insects, by Mr. S. Deane. 



