Indirect ixjuries caused by insects. 179 



wliich all prey upon timber. This insect was probably 

 a Phaleria, Latr., in which genus the mandibles are 

 protruded from the head like those of Lucanus ; and 

 one species, as we have seen above, feeds upon maize. 



Great profits are sometimes derived by farmers from 

 their crops of clover-seed : but this does not happen 

 very often; for a small weevil, (Apion/lavifemoratum^) 

 which abounds every where at almost all times of the 

 year, feeds upon the seed of the purple clover, and in 

 most seasons does the crop considerable damage ; so 

 that a plant of the fairest appearance will, in conse- 

 quence of the voracity of this little enemy, produce 

 scarcely any thing. Another species (Apion JIavipes) 

 iiifents the Dutch or white clover^. The young plants 

 of purple clover, when just sprung, are often, as Mr. 

 Joseph Stickney pointed out to me, much injured by 

 the same little jumping beetles (Hallica, F.) that at- 

 tack the turnips. 



But not only, if let loose to the work of destruction, 

 might insects annihilate our grain and pulse ; they 

 would also deprive the earth of that beautiful green 

 carpet which now covers it, and is so agreeable and so 

 refreshing to the sight. When you see a large tract 

 of land lying fallow, as is sometimes the case in open 

 districts, with no intervening patches of verdure, how 

 unpleasant and uncomfortable is it to your eye ! What 

 then would be your sersaiions, were the whole face of 

 the earth bare, and not dressed by Flora ? But such 

 a state of things would soon take place, if to punish u?, 

 or to teach us thankfulness to the great Arbiter of our 



* Markwick, Marsham and Lehmann in Linn. Trans. \i. H','. — a;ul 

 Kirby in ditto, \x, 37 , 4?. n. !9. 23. 



