TURNIP BEETLES, 97 



of Turnip, Rape, Mustard, or other allied plants. Rape is noted by 

 one Continental observer, especially, as being attacked, the beetles 

 gnawing the buds and flowers, and the maggots feeding on the seed in 

 the pod, so long as it is not ripe. Consequently on this a kind of pre- 

 mature ripening takes place, and the infested pods are stated commonly 

 to open earlier than those which are uninjured. The full-grown 

 maggots under these circumstances fall to the ground. In the 

 experiments noted by John Curtis, they buried themselves two to 

 three inches below the surface, and enclosed themselves in brown oval 

 cocoons formed of earth. 



The maggots are of the shape figured at p. 96, fleshy, legless, 

 transversely wrinkled, yellowish white in colour, with pale brown 

 head. The pupa is of a dull ochreous colour, with black eyes. These 

 descriptions give the appearance when much magnified, but without 

 the help of a glass they are much too small for the characteristics to 

 show clearly. 



The duration of the pupal state is of three or four weeks in 

 summer; so where circumstances are favourable, and food-plants at 

 hand, there may be two broods during the season, and the weevils 

 which hybernate in the latter part of the year, supply the parents for 

 the first brood of the following season. 



The above slight sketch of the history of the Seed Weevil is taken 

 mainly from the works quoted below, as I have never had an oppor- 

 tunity of observing the attack throughout its course personally.* 



MeLIGETHES jENEUS. 



Beetle and maggot, magnified, and infested flower, after Dr. Taschenberg ; jawa 

 and antennie of maggot, much magnified. — Ed. 



The following notes on the life-history of the " Flower Beetle " 

 are taken almost entirely from my own observations, extending over 

 several weeks in the summer of 1872. f 



* 'Farm Insects,' by .John Curtis, p. 105 ; ' Praktische Insekten-Kunde,' by Dr. 

 E. L. Taschenberg, Pt. ii., p. 1U6 ; and ' Tierische Schadiinge und Nutzlinge,' by 

 Dr. J. Eitzema Bos, p. 317. 



t These observations were undertaken at the request of the late Andrew Murray, 

 F.L.S., Curator of the South Kensington Collection of Economic Entomology, 

 relatively to some (possible) variations in characteristics of broods of different 



H 



