1900] 



BKAN AND I'KA-HKKU UKKTI.KS. 



29 



The infested Beans, and also the maggots, forwarded from Port 

 Elizabeth showed (respectively) a slight difference in method of in- 

 festation and in structure from what is usually recorded. In some 

 instances I found that the maggottunnels, instead of stopping just 

 under the skin when they came to the outside of the Bean, ran on just 



Bruchus obtectus.— Beetle, maggot, and chrysaliH— all natural rIzo and magnified ; 

 and fragment of case of chrysalis, magnified ; and four injured Beans. 



underneath it, so that the shape and the blackish colour of the insects 

 when developed to beetle state could be seen througli the thin tran- 

 sparent coat of the Bean. 



Also, in some instances, it appeared from tlie gnawings that the 

 maggots had made, or might have made, their entrance into the seed 

 from the outside. 



On microscopic examination I found that the maggot, as usual with 

 other species of liruchi, was corrugated, but also that tlie three 

 segments next to the head were distinctly divided beneath from each 

 other, and that each of these segments was furnished with a pair of 

 appendages placed in the common position of feet, and, as far as I 

 could see, answering the ordinary purposes of claw-feet. 



I was informed by the late Mr. S. D. iiairstow (President of the 

 East Province Nat. Hist. Soc. of Cape Colony), that the kind of Bean 

 which these beetles -■' most attack was the " Sugar Bean," but that 

 many kinds of Beans were also attacked by them, and, judging both by 

 the descriptions and specimens forwarded, the attack was peculiarly 

 injurious. 



In two of the South African Beans (figured above) I found four 

 holes, showing where Bruchi had escaped ; in another, seven beetles 



* The terms of "weevil," as well as that of "beetle," are sometimes used 

 indifferently for these Bruchi, and scientifically the term weevil is certainly pre- 

 ferable; but in this paper I have used the word " beetle" throughout to avoid any 

 chance of confusion with the Bean and Pea-leaf Weevils, Sitonen, which are a most 

 prevalent pest in this country, and to which the name of " weevils " is, I believe, 

 always given with us. 



