COLEOPTERA. 55 



one tenth of an inch long, of a rusty black color, with a white spot 

 on the hinder part of the thorax, four or five white dots behind the 

 middle of each wing-cover, and a white spot, shaped like the 

 letter T, on the exposed extremity of the body. This little insect 

 is the Bruchiis Pisi of Linnaeus, the pea-Bruchus, or pea-weevil, 

 but is better known in America by the incorrect name of pea-bug. 

 The original meaning of the word Bruchus is a devourer, and the 

 insects to which it is applied well deserve this name, for, in the 

 larva state, they devour the interior of seeds, often leaving but 

 little more than the hull untouched. They belong to a family of 

 tlie great weevil tribe called Bruchid^, and are distinguished 

 from other weevils by the following characters. The body is 

 oval, and slightly convex ; the head is bent downwards, so that 

 the broad muzzle, when the insects are not eating, rests upon the 

 breast ; the antennas are short, straight, and saw-toothed within, 

 and are inserted close to a deep notch in each of the eyes ; the 

 feelers, though very small, are visible ; the wing-cases do not 

 cover the end of the abdomen ; and the hindmost thighs are very 

 thick, and often notched or toothed on the under-side, as is the 

 case in the pea-weevil. The habits of the Bruchians and their larvae 

 are similar to those of the pea-weevil, which remain to be de- 

 scribed. It may be well, however, to state here that these beetles 

 frequent the leguminous or pod-bearing plants, such as the pea, 

 Gleditsia, Robinia, Mimosa, Cassia, &c., during and immediately 

 after the flowering season ; they pierce the tender pods of these 

 plants, and commonly lay only one egg in each seed, the pulp of 

 which suffices for the food of the little maggot-like grub hatched 

 therein. 



Few persons while indulging in the luxury of early green pease 

 are aware how many insects they unconsciously swallow. When 

 the pods are carefully examined, small, discolored spots may be 

 seen within them, each one corresponding to a similar spot on the 

 opposite pea. If this spot in the pea be opened, a minute whitish 

 grub, destitute of feet, will be found therein. It is the weevil in 

 its larva form, which lives upon the marrow of the pea, and arrives 

 at its full size by the time that the pea becomes dry. This larva 

 or grub then bores a round hole from the hollow in the centre of 

 the pea quite to the hull, but leaves the latter and generally the 



