398 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



corn, grown the year before, which had become infested with 

 insects, and that he found great numbers of the insects, on the 

 wing, in the room where the corn was kept. He also brought 

 to me two large ears of corn from the infected heap. At that 

 time, I was not aware that the fly- weevil attacked Indian corn, 

 at least in New England; and these ears, appearing sound 

 externally, were rolled up in several sheets of strong brown 

 paper, securely tied, and laid away for future examination. 

 They were forgotten, however, till December, 1845, when, 

 upon opening the parcel, I found a great quantity of dead 

 moths, and several living ones, in the paper. Every kernel 

 appeared to have been perforated, and many of the kernels 

 had three or four holes in each of them. Some contained the 

 insect in the worm state, and some the fully formed chrysalis. 

 The moths differed from the*Virginia fly-weevil only in being 

 rather larger, with blackish fore legs, and in having a more 

 conspicuous blackish spot near the tips of the feelers, showing 

 them to be merely varieties of the same species. This remark 

 seems to be confirmed by the now well known fact that the 

 fly-weevil, at the South and West, attacks corn as well as 

 wheat, and by the statement of Mr. Owen, that ''the insect 

 found in corn does not differ from that found in wheat; it is 

 usually," says he, " somewhat larger than the specimens from 

 wheat, but this may be owing to the greater amount of nour- 

 ishment which the corn has afforded." Moreover, we learn 

 from the works of Olivier and of Bonafous,* that maize also 

 suffers from the Angoumois moth in France. It is related 

 that Kalm, the Swedish traveller, on finding some bugs in 

 pease that he had carried home from this country, was filled 

 with alarm, "fearing lest he might thereby introduce so great 

 an evil into his beloved Sweden." With something of the 

 same feeling, on finding what the insects were that had been 

 depredating in my friend's corn-bin, I put the two ears of corn 

 into a large glass jar, and corked it tight, to prevent the escape 

 of any moths that might be developed from worms and chry- 



* Encyclopedie Methodique. Insectes. Tome IV., p. 121. — Histoire du 

 Mais, par M. Bonafous, p. 111. 



