The Indian Wheal and Rice Weevil. 



majority of the answers received from Europeans, that the weevil is never 

 found on unharvested g-rain. 



In this connection it should be remembered that the cold, which is 

 probably a quite sufficient reason in itself for the fact that the European 

 species is only found in granaries, does not exist in India. 



Messrs. Blechynden and Stewart have brought to the writer's notice 

 cases where wheat has been threshed out on mud floors in the open fields, 

 and stored without delay in new buildings constructed for the purpose ; 

 the grain, nevertheless, becoming infested with weevils. This would 

 point to grain in some cases being infested while in the fields. 

 It is only fair to add, however, that in these cases the grain was not 

 stored with a view to ascertaining whether grain so treated would be free 

 from weevil, and consequently allowance must be made for the possibility 

 of infested grain having lain in the neighbourhood unobserved, infested 

 granaries being admittedly in each case to be found within a few hundred 

 yards of the spot. 



On the whole, then, it would seem probable that the weevil is generally 

 confined to stored grain, and hence that, by bringing in grain straight 

 from the fields and storing it in disinfected granaries, the pest will be 

 avoided, while it would seem not improbable that in some cases the insect 

 may find shelter in the neighbourhood of the threshing floors, and hence, oc- 

 casionally, lay its eggs in the wheat before it is removed to the store-house. 

 The writer would therefore suggest that the following precautions 

 should be taken : clearing up the threshing floors, and the ground near to 

 them, and locating the threshing floors, where possible, well away from 

 infested granaries, taking care that grain is not stored in infested 

 granaries, infesled boats, or near to infested grain, and that it is put 

 direct into uninfested buildings, well removed from all infested 

 places. The beetle is apparently ill-fitted for flight. Fitch ^ estimates 

 the rate at which, under favourable circumstances, it can crawl as 

 only about 1 foot per minute,^ so that the granary need only be 

 separated by a comparatively short distance (a mile would probably 

 be sufficient) from places where affected grain is to be found. It 

 is no doubt the case that in the present widespread condition of the 

 pest preventive measures would have at first to be carried out with the 

 utmost care, but it seems probable that the task is by no means an 

 impossible one. The weevils chiefly inhabit the heaps of grain, but, 

 when these are disturbed, they come to the surface in vast numbers 

 and creep in all directions on the walls and floors, seeking for shelter, 

 and consequently it is morally certain that new grain brought into a 

 store house, from which all last year's grain has not been most carefully 



Entomologist, vol XII (1879). 



This estimate of pace is probably a litUe low. 



