THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 179 



pectoral; and they certainly would be six in number, as in 

 all insects that possess legs ; but I have failed to find them 

 in any of the larvae I have examined: they are all little white 

 maggots, without even the rudiments of limbs of any kind. 

 Having referred to Mr. Curtis's work, — and I consider it an 

 imperative duty to mention every author who has preceded 

 me, — I am under the necessity of eliminating, from the 

 account he has given of this minute insect, the following 

 statement, which he received from a Mr. William Trenchard, 

 of Sherborne. " I have a field of clover which has been 

 twice mown, and there is now a fine after-math. The part of 

 the field near the stack has been lately attacked by a small 

 black weevil, which advances in a semicircle, totally destroy- 

 ing every leaf, leaving only the fibre. I think there are on 

 some of the leaves as many as 100 or 150. Since last night 

 they have eaten nearly as much as would keep a sheep." 

 This startling account I think can hardly apply to Apiou 

 apricans, which is not black, and does not go to work in the 

 way described. It is no uncommon thing for authors thus to 

 intersperse in their works passages from previous writers, 

 which do not apply to the same insect. Mr. Curtis has, 

 however, done us good service by giving translations of 

 M. Guerin-Meneville's valuable researches on the life-history 

 of Apion apricans, published in French, in 1842; and the 

 following passage, from M. Herpin's 'Memoir on Insects 

 injurious to Agriculture,' indicates probable remedies. 

 " Although it be not always in our power to arrest the multi- 

 plication of noxious insects, to destroy them, or to combat 

 them with success, the knowledge of the effects which they 

 produce on vegetation is, nevertheless, very important, since 

 it teaches us the true cause of an injury, which may be 

 attributed, but very incorrectly, to vague and inappreciable 

 circumstances, to deleterious conditions of the atmosphere, 

 or other inexplicable occurrences in vegetation. It shows us 

 the enemy we must attack, and of which we must carefully 

 study its habits, economy, and metamorphoses," &c. Years 

 previously, a writer in the 'Entomological Magazine,' vol. i. 

 p. 33, had pointed out the necessity of this study almost in 

 the same words. M. Herpin has excellent observations on 

 the importance of encouraging the natural enemies of injurious 

 insects, — the minute parasitic Hymenoptera and Diptera; 



