44 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
also becomes plain how soon the attack may become a matter 
quite beyond all calculation or remedy. 
The life-history and description of these little pests has often 
been written, but in very few instances has it been from actual 
observation, changes being rung on the copies and recopies from 
the older observers downwards. From the limit of circulation 
these were of necessity original, and in the case of many insects, 
owing to superstition and folk-lore, they are indeed very original. 
In Britain, Kirby and Spence, and Curtis are still served up im all 
forms, without a particle of attempted original research, or even 
new information or confirmation, in many of our special journals 
devoted to agriculture and horticulture. It is this which delays 
progress; independent observation is needed, even if not to 
establish new facts, to confirm many old beliefs. Now with 
regard to these corn or granary weevils, Sitophilus granarius and 
S. oryz@, their economy may not be of great import ; we know the 
damage and we know the damager in its perfect form, although 
its larva is the first destructive, and in its earlier stages, living as 
it does inside the corn itself, it 1s safely entrenched and impreg- 
nable. Probably from these circumstances the granary weevil 
has been much neglected by entomologists. Curtis’s information 
is all derived from Leuwenhock and Olivier; he knew neither 
egos, larve nor pupe. Few there are who have scientifically 
examined the species of weevil and other allies which affect the 
various cargoes of grain. 
The Calandride is a family of Rhynchophora, which contains 
many exotic species, whose larve are very destructive to various 
valuable palms and cycads. It is somewhat remarkable, for 
including species so different in size as the large Calandra 
palmarum, which measures nearly two inches in length, and our 
little S. granarius, which scarcely exceeds one-eighth of an inch. 
The larva of C. palmarum is (or was) celebrated as being con- 
sidered such a delicious dainty by the natives and even others 
(teste Kirby and Spence). ‘To this family belongs the species 
which, as Rye observes, is emphatically known as the weevil. 
These weevils, which include both scientifically and naturally 
two closely allied species, are now included in Schénherr’s aptly- 
named genus, Sitophilus (= grain-loving). In all weevily corn 
the snouted unicolorous S. granarius, and the S. oryze, which 
has two red spots on each wing-case, will be conspicuous as the 
