16 Ajtpendix. 



paper or a painted board, can travel at the rate of about one foot per minute. How many 

 broods there are in Britain it is difficult of determination ; it probably depends on many 

 varying circumstances as to degree of warmth and the like, but the normal number is pro- 

 bably two annually. I have found the larva both in early summer and in late autumn. 

 The rapidity of development also varies greatly. Hybernating imago, e^g laid in May, 

 second generation in August, is probably Japproximate for Britain in an uuheated store- 

 room. The only corn I have known attacked is wheat, barley, and maize ; it does not 

 touch oats, rye, canary, peas or beans. In the larval state only one grain is destroyed by 

 each insect, but it is probably much more destructive as an imago ; and the beetles, which 

 survive great extremities of temperature, appear to be remarkably long-lived. Amongst 

 some maize taken in 1876 affected with S. granarius, and in which I believe it has not 

 bred I have a quantity of specimens still (November 1878) alive. It seems to breed very 

 sparingly in this country, for when in want of a larva or pupa I have opened some hun- 

 dreds of kernels from my stores without finding one.' 



With regard to remedies, Mr. Fitch says : — ' Cleanliness alone will do the required works 

 and this requires to be thorough to cope with such a crevice and cranny loving, hybernat- 

 ing insect as the Calandra. Frequent lime-washing and scrubbing (with soft soap) of gra- 

 naries the plastering of all uneven wall surfaces, the asphalting or concreting of all uneven 

 floors, the free use of the dressing machine or blower, and frequent sifting or turning over 

 of the o'rain, are the only likely remedies against weevil attack. It is also necessary to 

 guard against mixing sound wheat with any containing " weevil," except for immediate 

 grinding ; also to see to the destruction of all rubbish and tail corn in which it is possible 

 for the beetles to live or breed.' — From a paper by E. A. Fitch, " Entomologist" Volume 

 XII, 1879, page 41. 



Miss Ormerod found the increase of S. oryzm to go on slowly and, apparently, 

 with even more dependence on genial surroundings than that of S. granarius. ' In 

 general appearance and in size the two weevils are very similar, but the rice weevil is 

 easily distinguishable by the two orange-coloured patches on each elytron, and also by the 

 possession of wings, from the uniformly tinted granary weevil, wingless in this country. 

 On 5th September 1877 I received a packet of the sweepings of corn ships, known as 

 " Indian dust " literally alive with these rice weevils from imports from the Rast Indies. Ou 

 September 6th the beetles were pairing, and on placing them within reach of warmth from 

 the fire they became very active, but during the rest of the experiment I kept them merely 

 at the ordinary temperature of living rooms constantly used. After this I noticed no 

 further advance, till on the 9th March of the present year, when on examining some of the 

 corn amono-st which the weevils were placed on the previous 5th September, I found nu- 

 merous wheat grains, now each containing one larva, and there were also a very few pupae ; 

 the latter however, all dead in different stages of development. The thick fleshy grubs 

 wore now from a sixteenth to somewhat under an eighth of an inch in length when at 

 their full stretch, but somewhat less iu their usual curved position, and their breadth 

 about two-thirds of their length. The grubs obtuse, legless, and white; the head chest- 

 nut colour ; jaws also chestnut, darker at the extremity, bluntly pointed, and waved into 

 two blunt teeth. The segment behind the head and the candal extremity with a few 

 small bristles. The movements of the larvae during life, and their contorted form after 

 death, made it diffioult to sketch them satisfactorily, but the figure represents a specimen 

 fairly with the numerous corrugations which confuse the primary segments with the lesser 

 folds, the underside being a complete mass of almost scale-like corrugations.' 



' A few pupffi were now (March 9th) observable, but only two specimens were as fully 

 developed as the one sketched, and on 11th April the larva; were active when disturbed 

 in their grains, but no more pupae were produced.' 



' On 3rd June I found only two more beetles, and on examining the grains of wheat 

 I found one grain in ten with a tenant in some stage of development, for the most part 

 still only in larval form, and often stunted. A few grains contained specimens of the 

 weevil in its perfect form, but for the most part they were small, distorted, and dead. As 



