136 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of sap and vigour, may be found to attack. Thus, one after 

 another, a third or more of the stools may be destroyed 

 through the repeated weakening of the bines. But the stools 

 suffer from another mode of attack by the same insect ; and 

 this introduces me to another section of its life-history, which 

 I have studied the more intently because my late friend, 

 John Curtis, has, as I believe, in his admirable — I must say 

 beautiful — work on 'Farm Insects' left it entirely unnoticed. 

 Greatly puzzled at the omission of a plant so important to 

 farmers as the hop, and an insect so ruinously destructive as 

 the hop-weevil, I thought I must have overlooked it, and 

 have diligently considted the excellent alphabetical index, 

 and fail to find either the words "hop," "hop-weevil," 

 " Otiorhynchiis nolatus," or any mention of an insect which 

 is especially injurious to the hop. I therefore think a 

 notice of its life-history may not be unacceptable to hop- 

 growers, seeing that I have made it the object of especial 

 attention. The insects may be seen united in pairs in almost 

 every hop-garden in Herefordshire or Kent at the period of 

 hop-picking, the bines being then removed, and the weevils 

 thus exposed the more readily to view. Immediately after- 

 wards the fecundated female enters the earth in close 

 proximity with the stool, and in this she excavates or gnaws 

 a little hollow, in which to deposit her eggs, which are from 

 half a dozen to a dozen in number: these have no particular 

 character, and are sure to escape notice unless purposely 

 sought after, by the summary process of taking up the stool 

 and shaking it over a sheet of dark paper, when the eggs — 

 small, whitish, and nearly round — tumble out and are per- 

 ceptible; otherwise, the eggs left to themselves soon hatch 

 and become maggots, without any apparent head, or legs, or 

 antennaj, and almost colourless; indeed, they have a semi- 

 transparent look, that rather reminds one of colourless jelly. 

 They remain together in little companies or colonies all 

 through the winter and spring, and probably families are the 

 produce of one act of oviposition. They continue to grow all 

 through the winter, feeding on the substance of the stool, in 

 which they make very evident excavations; they continue 

 thus until May, June, or July, when tliey separate and retire 

 singly, for the great purpose of transformation. At this 

 lime they become chrysalids, very closely resembling the 



