The Indian Wheat and Rice Weevil. 



Stored (^-raiu in different parts of the world is liable to be attacked 

 The occurrence of two by two distinct species of weevil, viz., Calandra 

 species. [Sitophilus) granaria and Calandra {Sifophilus) 



oryza. These two species are so much like each other and have habits 

 so nearly identical, that no study of the subject would be complete 

 without taking both species into consideration. Calandra granaria is 

 supposed to have been introduced into Europe from the East (probably 

 from Egypt), and now occurs throughout the whole of Europe and 

 America. It is a little larger than Calandra oryza, but superficially almost 

 xactly like it ; it is, however, without the light coloured spots on the 

 elytra, and has the clear medial smooth space on the dorsal surface of the 

 prothorax somewhat more defined. It is said to be entirely confined to 

 granaries, attacking wheat, rye, and maize, and requires a considerable 

 amount of warmth for its development. In the appendix to this paper 

 full description of ^ it will be found, which are valuable from the light 

 they throw some points in the history of the Indian wheat weevil 

 C. ori/za, and from the fact that several of the methods that are suggested 

 for combating it are equally applicable to both species. 



The Indian Species. 

 The weevil found in Calcutta in wheat and rice is Calandra {Sito- 

 philus) or y zee of Linn. 



In spring the female punctures grains lying in granaries with her 

 jaws, and deposits one Q^g in each grain. " The puncture is somewhat 

 curved, rather less than y^g of an inch (1*5 m.m.) deep, and rather 

 narrower at the bottom than at the opening. The q^^, which is 0*5 m.m. 

 long, elongate, ovoid and translucent, is pushed to the bottom, and the 

 whole space above it is then filled in with particle* 

 of grain gnawed into fine powder like flour. The 

 orifice being pasted with a little saliva,''^ is so well concealed as to be 

 imperceptible except on the very closest examination. 



The larva (fig. 4) rapidly hatches and bores its way into the iieart 

 , T of the grain. It is a thick, fleshy grub, and when 



full-grown is from 1'5 m.m. to 3 m.m. in length, 

 when at full stretch, but somewhat less in the usual curved position, and 

 its breadth is about two-thirds of its length. The grubs are obtuse, 

 legless, and white ; the head chestnut colour ; jaws also chestnut, darker 

 at the extremity, bluntly pointed, and waved into blunt teeth. The 

 segment behind the head, and the candal extremity, with a few small 

 bristles. The figure represents a specimen fairly well with the numerous 

 corrugations which confuse the primary segments with the lesser folds, the 

 underside being a complete mass of almost scale-like corrugations.^ 



' Prof. C. V. Kiley's article. Farmers' Eeview, Chicago — see appendix. 

 ' The description and figure of the arva are taken from Miss Ormerod's paper iu 

 The Entomologist, Vol. XII, 1879. 



