BEETLES. 335 



chkljE effect a similar result l>y attacking the seeds, and the Chrysonielida' hy 

 destroying the leaves." 



One of the most widely known spei-les of Rrucliida' is liruclum pUi, the ])ea-weevil, 

 found both iu EurojJe and in America. This beetle is about O.'JO of an inch long and 

 0.1:2 of an inch wide, is dai'k In'own with a few wliite spots on the elytra and a slightly 

 more jironiinent white sjiot just in front of the white scutellum. The ti]i of the abdo- 

 men, which projects beyond the apices (if the elytra bears a T-shaped white mark. 

 The females fasten their lemon-yellow, sub-cylindrical eggs with a gummy secretion 

 upon the outer surface of the newly formed jiod of the pea. The white, footless 

 larva', when they liatch, bore thniugh the pod into the develojiing seed within, where 

 they continue to grow with the pea itself. In eating green peas we eat, oftentimes, 

 large numbers of these young larva', a very minute dot on the surface of a pea being 

 the only external evidence of the )iresence of a weevil larva within. The ]ieas that 

 are collected one season for ne.\t year's seed often contain a large number of these 

 insects, which escajje as imagos the next spring, when the peas are )ilanted, and 

 deposit eggs for a succeeding gener.itlcm. I'uited effort on the part of those who cul- 

 tivate peas would do mucli to lessen the luimber and destructiveness of these weevils. 

 Seed peas should be kept iu bags made of tiglitly woven cloth from which the weevils 

 cannot escape, and the beetles should be killed before the peas .are jjlanted b_v innuers- 

 ing the bags for a moment in hot water, wliich process will not impair the germinating 

 power of the seeds; or weevils may be ilestroyed by piutting seed peas into a close box 

 and adding a little carbon disul])hide. On account of the explosiveness of the vapor 

 of carbon disulphide this moile of treatment should be used only in the absence of fire 

 or lighted lamps. .Some persons keep seed peas, after they have di'ied sufficiently to 

 jjrevent mouhliug, in close vessels for two years, at the end of which time the picas will 

 have lost very little of their germinative vitality, while the weevils will have emerged 

 and died during the first year. Peas sown late in the season are not attacked by 

 these weevils, because they blossom after the time during which these insects ovi- 

 posit. The Baltimore oriole (Icterus hidtiinnri) sjilits open the jiods of peas to get 

 at the larvaj of the pea-weevil, and the crow-blackbird {Quiscalus pui-pin-eiis) is said 

 to eat the imagos in the spring, but these weevils mostly escape the attention of other 

 birds. 



Jii-i/r/zus /(.ib'P i^ ■.mitthi'v connnon American species, much smaller than Jt. p>si, 

 which attacks different kinds of beans, several beetles sometimes emerging fi-om a 

 single bean, while eacli JJ. jiisi usually (iccu]iies a ]iea by itself. In Europe two similar 

 species, U. granurins and Ji. mpjuiij/xs, are destructive lioth to beans and to peas. 



Differing from Uriichns in having tlie anterior coxa' sejiarated by the prosternum 

 are the species of ('(iri/ohor//s. ('. irr//in't>c>i.s is nu ashy-brown S]iecies, about 0.4 of 

 an inch long, from the southern United States, wliere its l.u'va.^ develop in the seeds of 

 the palmetto {tSahal pd/metfo). 



The Anthribidjs are wee\ils, char.acterized, according to Dr. J. L. Le Conte, by 

 having the abdomen of the male and female alike ; /. c, composed of the s.ame number 

 of segments, tiie elytra with a distinct lateral fold on the imier surface, a vertical 

 pygidiuni, — or distal end of the abdonu-n, — and straight antenna^. 



Cratojviris hinfitus, the commonest s|)ecies of Authribida' in the eastern United 

 States, is. about 0.8 of an inch long; its ground color is (.lark brown; tlie u]iper 

 half of the head and forward part of the jirothorax are cream-white, and .an irregular 

 spot near the middle of each elytron is of the same color ; the rest of the insect is 



