58 



NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



Figure 15. 



plantations and forests. The ravages occasioned by these 

 maggots are seen on our fruit trees, apples, pears, plums, 

 chestnuts, hazel-nuts, and in the rice, peas, wheat, and 

 other grains. 



The Palm- WEEVIL (Calandra palmarum) is one of the 

 largest Snout Beetles of North 

 America, but it is found mostly 

 in the tropics. I found it in St. 

 Domingo, and have given an illus- 

 tration, or rather representation, 

 of it in this work, because it gives 

 an excellent idea of the form and 

 appearance of all the other genera 

 and species of Curculiones. This 

 Beetle is about an inch long, and 

 is black ; it has large eyes, tri- 

 angular antenna3 terminating in 

 a knob, and a long snout, upon 

 which is a hairy crest like the 

 mane of a horse; its wing-covers 

 are striated. Its larvae are known 

 in the tropics of America under the name of Palm-worms, 

 and they live in large numbers in the trunks of several 

 Palm-trees, but principally in the Cabbage-palm. {Areca 

 oleraced), which grows in abundance in the mountainous 

 parts of St. Domingo. When fully grown, they are about 

 three inches long and one inch in circumference, of a dirty 

 yellow color, with a black head, looking like a piece of fat 

 enveloped in a transparent skin. These disgusting-looking 

 animals are roasted upon a wooden spit, or broiled, and 

 eaten with dried and pulverized bread, seasoned with salt 

 and pepper, and considered by many epicures as the ne plus 

 ultra of delicacies. 



It is a pity that the people 'of St. Domingo have not 

 adopted the polite custom of the Austrians, who never sit 



Palm-weevil. 



