ORDER I.— BEETLES. 59 



down to a meal without bowing profoundly to each other, 

 and saying, " I wish you a good appetite!" This friendly 

 and polite salutation would be peculiarly apropos before so 

 delicate a dish. 



The Cabbage Palm-tree has the same general appearance 

 as the Cocoa-palm, but its fruits are not larger than peas. 

 The inhabitants frequently cut down these trees, for the 

 purpose of getting from its top the unexpanded terminal 

 leaf-bud, which weighs many pounds, and is of a cylindric- 

 al form. This is called the Palm-cabbage, and is eaten in 

 soups, or is boiled and prepared with vinegar and oil as a 

 salad, and has really a delightful taste. Then they make 

 incisions in the trunk, in order to entice the Snout Beetle 

 there by the evaporation of the sap, and to have her depos- 

 it her eggs in it, that they may afterward obtain a large 

 crop of maggots. 



Another species of Snout Beetle is the Wheat- weevil 

 {Calandra granaria), which is not larger than a flea, oblong, 

 and chestnut-colored. These insects do immense injuries 

 in granaries by boring a hole with their snout into the 

 grains of wheat, or barley, or rye, and depositing therein 

 an e^^, from which proceeds a white maggot, which de- 

 vours all the farinaceous substance, so that nothing remains 

 but the hull. These maggots live in this condition about 

 thirty days, when they metamorphose into white cocoons, 

 from which, after about ten days, the perfect Insects pro- 

 ceed, the females of which immediately deposit their eggs, 

 each laying about one hundred and fifty. 



This Wheat-weevil is originally a native of Europe, and 

 seems to have been accidentally imported here with grain. 



The EicE- WEEVIL {Calandra Oryzce) belongs to the same 

 genus, and is found, as its name indicates, in rice, where it 

 may be seen every day. It is of about the same size as the 

 preceding, but differs from it by having two spots on each 

 wing-cover. 



