160 SOME SOL 111 INDIAN INSECTS, ETC. [CHAP. Will. 



Chapter XVIII. 

 PESTS OF STORED PR< >DUCTS. 



"To the terrible utilitarian a bushel of peas preserved from the weevil is of more 

 importance than a volume of observations bringing no immediate profit. Vet who has 

 ii man of little faith, thai whal is useless to-day will nol be useful l i 



If we learn the customs "1 insects or animals we shall understand better how to protect 

 It is by the accumulation iractical or other- 



wise, that humanity has done, and will continue to do, lietter today than yesterday, and 

 than to-day. If we live upon peas and beans, which we dispute with 

 the weevil, we live also by knowledge, that mighty kneading trough in which 

 s is mixed and leavened." 



EVEN after the agriculturist lias grown and harvested Ins crops 

 and paid his toll to the innumerable insect-pests which attack his 

 produce in the field, he is by no means freed from the undesirable 

 attentions ol yel another class ol insects winch now proceed to 

 levy their dues upon his outturn, whether this be stored for food of 

 manor beast or retained for the sowing of next season' 

 Not only are cereals attacked but seeds of all sorts, and 

 scarcely any manufactured products of vegetable or animal origin 

 are free from destruction, for some oJ these pests of -lined products 

 are not only voracious but also almost omnivorous, so that it has 

 aptly been said of one of them that its food is "everything 

 cast-iron." 



These insects have been very little investigated in India; most 

 of them art bet ties, but there are also a few small moths which do 

 damage of this nature. The following is an incomplete list of the 

 destructive species so far as these are known : 



Coleoptera: Silvanns surinamensis 'see p. 2ox>), Lcemophlceus 

 minutus, JEthriostoma undulata, Tenebroides mauritanicus(seep. 289), 

 Lophocateres pusillus, Carpophilus dimidiatus (see p. 2SS). Rhizopertha 

 dominica (see p. 21)4). Gibbium psylloides (scotias), Sitodrepa panicea 

 (see p. 295). Lasioderma serricorne (see p. 205). Triboliiim castaneum 

 (see p. 300), Liitheticusoryza.Calandragranaria, ( p. 341), 



Caryoborus gonagra (see p. 308), Pachymerus chinensis (see p. 306), and 

 various other Bruchidae. 



Lepidoptera: Sitotroga cerealella (see p. 450). Ephestia cautella 

 (cahiritella), E. ficulella (desuetella), Phtlwrimcea operculella (see 



P- 455)- 



Of the above-named insects the Rice Weevil (Calandra oryzae) 

 is at once the commonest and the most destructive. It attacks 

 cereals of all sorts in the held to ;i slight extent, feeding on the 



