INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 169 



served, not correctly; it being probably the larva of 

 some coleopterous insect, perhaps of one of the nume- 

 rofls tribe of Staphi/linidce, which are not universally 

 carnivorous. This animal was discovered to infest the 

 wheat in its earliest stage of growth after vegetation 

 had commenced ; and there was reason to believe that 

 it began even with the grain itself. It eats into the 

 young plant about an inch below the surface, devour- 

 ing the central part; and thus, vegetation being stop- 

 ped, it dies. Out of fifty acres sown with this grain in 

 1802, ten had been destroyed by the grub in question so 

 early as October^. — Other predaceous Coleoptera will 

 also attack young corn. This is done by the larva of 

 Carahus gibbus^Y . (C. gibbosus,^.^. ffarpali/s, I^atr.)^ 

 particularly with respect to wheat. In the spring of 

 18 13 not less than twelve German hides (//^//e^^), equal 

 to two hundred and thirty English acres, were destroyed 

 by it in the canton of Seeburg, near Halle in Germany ; 

 and Germar (who with other members of the Society of 

 Natural History, at that place, ascertained the fact,) 

 suspects that it was the same insect, described by Cooti, 

 an Italian author, which caused great destruction in 

 Upper Italy in 1776. — Not only is the larva, which 

 probably lives in that state three years, thus injurious; 

 but, what one would not have expected, the perfect 

 beetle itself attacks the grain when in the ear, clamber- 

 ing up the stems at night in vast numbers to get at it. 

 — Along Avith the larvae of this insect were found, in the 

 proportion of about one-fourth, those of another beetle 

 (Melolontha rujicorms, F.), which seemed to contribute 

 to the mischief''. 



'' Linn. Trans, ix, 156-61. " Germar's 3[ag. dcr Ent. i. 1-10. 



