48 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
confounded. Itis, therefore, as well not to give our Sitophilus-bred 
species a name at present. Curtis bred an apterous specimen of 
Meraporus graminicola from these weevils, but mine is not that 
species. 
To return to the actual economy of the Sitophilus—the two 
species are so closely allied that practically they may be considered 
as one—the results obtained by that excellent observer, Miss E. 
A. Ormerod, are given in the present number, and my own 
observations are drawn from the study of the accumulations of 
the last three years, which now amount to eight distinct stores. 
It has been usually supposed that the parent weevil bores with 
its rostrum into the grain previous to depositing its egg in the 
hole made. I do not believe this is the case, for a very fine 
puncture only—such as would be made by a very fine needle—is to 
be seen on the borders of the germen in those grains which 
contain the larva. The egg is therefore laid, I think, just on the 
surface, as Olivier said, or under the outer skin of the germen, 
and the young larva eats its way in. One egg only is deposited 
in a grain, the flour of which just serves to bring the larva to 
maturity. It turns to a pupa in the grain, so that, unless very 
minutely examined, affected grains are not apparent until the 
emergence of the imago, except by their weight. The imago 
partially feigns death when touched, and on a tolerably smooth 
surface, such as paper or a painted board, can travel at the rate of 
about one foot per minute. Howmany broods there are in Britain 
is difficult of determination ; it probably depends on many varying 
circumstances as to degree of warmth and the like, but the normal 
number is probably two annually. I have found the larva both in 
early summer and in late autumn. The rapidity of development also 
varies greatly. Hybernated imago, egg laid in May, second genera- 
tion in August, 1s probably approximate for Britain in an unheated 
store-room. The only corn I have known to be attacked by 
Sitophilus is wheat, barley and maize. It does not touch oats, 
rye, canary, peas or beans, although Curtis appears to say some 
black oats (received from Lynn) were attacked in one instance 
(‘Farm Insects,’ p. 326). This statement, however, is not very 
clear ; the attack may only refer to the wheat. In the larval 
state only one grain is destroyed by each insect, but it is 
probably much more destructive as an imago; and the beetles, 
which survive great extremities of temperature, appear to be 
