30 BEANS. [1900 



bad been present ; and iu another, I found Jive beetles, or coloured 

 cbrysalids, still within. Mr. Bairstow reported that " the pest when 

 in larval condition reduces the interior of the seed to a fine powder, 

 and passes into pupa sometimes in its powdery bed, which disappears 

 almost immediately on the emergence of the perfect insect." " 



The above point (of the large number of the beetles, B. obtectus, 

 which may be found, even to the number of twenty-eight, feeding in 

 one Beau seed) will be found in the paper on "Pea and Bean Weevils," 

 for reference to which see note + ; as also a second point, and one of 

 very great economic importance, that the insects will continue breeding 

 indefinitely in stored Beans. " If any means of exit is not present, 

 the females will soon begin to lay their eggs upon the stored and 

 damaged Beans, and another generation will soon develop. This may 

 go on indefinitely, or until the food-supply is exhausted. The Bean 

 Weevil continues to multiply in the stored Beans. These, when in- 

 fested, are usually reduced at last to nothing but powder, and have no 

 value as seed." 



It has long been noticed that, although insect infestations from 

 this country only too frequently make themselves at home iu America, 

 the reverse rarely occurs. In the years that have elapsed since careful 

 observation has been made of Beau-seed Bruchi of different species on 

 the two sides of the Atlantic, as well as m South Africa, it would 

 appear almost impossible that, if this species {B. obtectus) exists here, 

 it should not have been noticed ; but, still looidng at its very destruc- 

 tive powers, it may not be amiss to draw attention to the possibility 

 of it occurring amongst us. 



Prevention and Remedies. — The first (and a very important) 

 measure of prevention is examination of Bean seed before purchase or- 

 sowing. If the seed has been infested (which is shown by the holes), 

 the farmer sows a damaged article which will not yield him a full 

 return | ; if he sows Beans with a few little pits of transparent skin 

 about as big as would cover a common shot-hole, he at the same time 

 (unless he has had the trouble and and expense of killing the pest iu 

 the seed) soivs a comimj crop of Bean -seed Beetles! If the buyer has a 

 doubt as to the state of the seeds, just splitting some open with his 



* See ' Some Injurious Insects of South Africa,' p. 24, referred to, aiite note, 

 p. 28. 



t See ' Insect Life,' vol. iv. Nos. " 9 and 10," pp. 299-302. 



J For observations of amount of injury to germination by infestation of 

 B. obtectus, see experiments by Prof. E. A. Popenoe, of Kansas Experiment Station, 

 quoted in ' Insect Life,' Nos. 9 and 10, vol. iv. p. 302 ; US A. Department of Agri- 

 culture, 1892. For results of experiment as to germination of infested seeds of our 

 British kind, B. rujimanus, see experiments by the Rev. Theodore Wood, Ent. Mo. 

 Mag. xxii. 1885, p. 114 ; also quotations from the above, showing the great amount 

 of damage caused, in my Annual Report for 1895, pp. 10, 11. 



