CHAPTER XIX. 



INSECTS INFESTING GRAIN. 



A NUMBER o£ destructive insects feed upon dry o^raiii ilour, seeds, 

 pulse and other dry food-stuffs, occurring in great quantity 



wherever these are stored in bulk 

 and worldng a very large aggregate 

 amount of destruction. They are 

 common also throughout the villages 

 of India, where special means of 

 storage are used to exclude them, 

 not always successfully. 



They belong to two orders, 



the beetles and the moths, the 



Fig. 298. former being the more abundant. 



Rice Weevil Gmh. {Magnified.) ^^ extensive investigation has ever 



been conducted into these pests in India and the available information 



has been gleaned from reports or discovered in chance investigation. 



The Rice Weevil.i 



A small dark-coloured weevil, about one-eighth of an inch long with 

 a prominent curved snout. It lays 

 its eggs on rice, corn, wheat and 

 other grains, in little indentations 

 made with its jaws ; the larvae eat 

 into the grain, become full grown 

 there and emerge as weevils 

 after passing through the pupa 

 stage. The insect is apparently 

 abundant everywhere in India, 

 and is known throughout the 

 warmer parts of the world. It is 

 injurious to nearly all varieties of 

 grain. 



The Wheat Beetle.^ 



The Wheat Beetle has been 

 found attacking wheat and other 

 stored produce in India, its larvse 



Fig. 299, 

 Rice Weevil Pupa. {Magnified.) 



Calandra oryzcB. L, (Curculionidae.) | ' Trogosita inauritanica. L. (Trogositidae.) 



