COLEOPTERA. 65 



There are some of the long-snouted weevils which inhabit 

 nuts of various kinds. Hence they are called nut-weevils, and 

 belong chiefly to the modern genus Balaninvs, a name that 

 signifies living or being in a nut. The common nut-weevil of 

 Europe lays her eggs in the hazel-nut and filbert, having pre- 

 viously bored a hole for that purpose with her long and slender 

 snout, while the fruit is young and tender, and dropping only 

 one egg in each nut thus pricked. A little grub is soon hatched 

 from the egg, and begins immediately to devour the soft kernel. 

 Notwithstanding this, the nut continues to increase in size, and, 

 by the time that it is ripe and ready to fall, its little inhabitant 

 also comes to its growth, gnaws a round hole in the shell, 

 through which it afterw^ards makes its escape, and burrows in 

 the ground. Here it remains unchanged through the winter, 

 and in the following summer, having completed its transfor- 

 mations, it comes out of the ground a beetle. 



In this country weevil-grubs are very common in hazel-nuts, 

 chestnuts, and acorns ; but I have not hitherto been able to 

 rear any of them to the beetle state. The most common of 

 the nut-weevils known to me appears to be the Rhynchcewus 

 (Balaninvs) nasicus of Say ; the long-snouted nut-weevil. Its 

 form is oval, and its ground color dark brown ; but it is clothed 

 with very short rust-yellow flattened hau's, which more or less 

 conceal its original color, and are disposed in spots on its wing- 

 covers. The snout is brown and polished, longer than the 

 whole body, as slender as a bristle, of equal thickness from one 

 end to the other, and slightly curved ; it bears the long elbowed 

 antennas, which are as fine as a hair, just behind the middle. 

 This beetle measures nearly three tenths of an inch in length, 

 exclusive of the snout. Specimens have been found paired 

 upon the hazel-nut tree in July, at which time probably the 

 eggs are laid. Others appear in September and October, and 

 must pass the winter concealed in some secure place. From 

 its size and resemblance to the nut-weevil of Europe, this is 

 supposed to be the species which attacks the hazel-nut here. 



It is now well known that the falling of unripe plums is 

 caused by little whitish grubs, which bore into the fruit. The 

 loss, occasioned by insects of this kind, is frequently very great ; 

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