GRANARY WEEVILS. 105 
amongst beetles, only to one section, that of the [hyncophora, or 
‘‘ Snout-bearers,” which have the head furnished with a snout, or 
proboscis, sometimes short and broad, sometimes, as figured at p. 104, 
long and slender, and arched or bent from base to tip. 
The two kinds of weevils which trouble us as stored grain infesta- 
tions in this country were formerly known as Calandra, but now (with 
us) more commonly as Sitophilus, and are Sitophilus granarius, more 
especially known as the Granary Weevil, and VN. oryzae, the Four- 
spotted Granary Weevil, which, though called the ‘‘ Rice Weevil,” is 
mischievous in Wheat, Barley, Oats, and other kinds of grain. 
The two kinds of weevils are very similar in appearance, both as 
to size and in variations of tint of brown or pitchy colour, excepting 
that the “‘ Rice Weevil” usually is rather the smallest, and is distin- 
guishable (see figure 9, p. 104) by having two lighter spots on each 
wing-case. Also, whilst the ‘‘ Rice Weevils’’ possess ample and ser- 
viceable wings folded beneath the wing-cases, the Common ‘‘ Granary 
Weevils” are wingless. The length of the ‘Granary Weevils”’ is 
from about one and a half to two lines, that of the ‘‘ Rice Weevils’”’ 
commonly rather less; and the general colouring of both species is 
some shade of pitchy black or pitchy red, or even sometimes pale 
chestnut; the antenn# (horns), which are elbowed and inserted on 
each side of the proboscis, are reddish, and the legs also are reddish. 
The fore body more or less pitted, and the wing-cases striate. At the 
end of the snout is the mouth-apparatus with which the weevils make 
the holes into grain for egg deposit. 
The life-history (taking the Common Granary Weevil as having 
been most observed) is as follows. The female beetle makes a hole 
with her proboscis in a grain, and in this she lays an egg,—one egg 
only in small corn, such as Wheat, Barley, or the like; but recent 
observations have shown that in the case of Maize, or Indian Corn, 
more than one egg is deposited. It is considered that in the course of 
a week one female can lay up to as many as one hundred and fifty 
eggs. The young maggot, which soon hatches, feeds on the contents 
of the corn grain, clearing it all out so as only to leave the outside, and 
there it changes to the chrysalis state, 
and thence shortly to the perfect weevil. 
The larve or maggots of both species 
are legless, white, fleshy and thick in 
shape (as shown in the figure accom- 
panying), with yellow or chestnut- 
coloured heads, and strong jaws. In 
the case of the Rice Weevil maggots, the ‘ 
jaws were chestnut-coloured, and bluntly Psd ee, 
pointed and waved into two blunt teeth. magnified. 
