COLEOPTERA. — CURCULIONID.^. 34)7 



more pre-eminently called the " Weevil," or Calandra granaria ; 

 an insect of minute size, not exceeding one eighth of an inch in 

 length ; but which, from attacking stored up grain, frequently commits 

 incalculable mischief; the female depositing an egg in each grain, the 

 mealy interior of which is entirely consumed by the larva. So 

 much has been written upon the habits of these insects, and upon the 

 most efficacious modes of destroying them, that it will be impossible 

 to do more than refer the reader to some of the more valuable of 

 these observations. The experiments of M. Keferstein, published in 

 Silbermann's Revue Entoniologique, No. 9., may especially be con- 

 sulted, as well as Latreille's Hist. Nat. S)'c., vol. xi. p. 54. ; Griffith's 

 Animal Kingdom, part 31. ; Kirby and Spence Introd., vol. i. p. 173. ; 

 Gardeners Mag., vol. i. p. 444. ; the Bulletin de la Soc. Philomat. for 

 1826; and the various memoirs referred to by Dryander, Cat. Libr. 

 Banks. 236, 237. 544. ; and likewise a memoir by W. Mills, Esq., in 

 the first volume of the Trans, of the Entomol. Society of London 

 (p. 241.) *, in which the beneficial result of the application of heat to 

 135" is recorded; as well as the memoir by M. Vallery on a rotatory 

 apparatus, constructed with reference to the habits and apterous 

 condition of the insect, and which its inventor was kind enough to 

 exhibit and explain to me at great length at the apartments of the 

 Institute of Paris^ where a model of the machine was in action. 

 Another species of Calandra (C. Oryzse) attacks the rice and Indian 

 wheat in a similar manner ; whilst two other species, whose history 

 has been traced and figured by the late Rev. L. Guilding (in a 

 memoir which gained the gold Ceres medal of the Society of Arts, 

 and which has been published in the Trans, of that society), are 

 very destructive to the sugar-cane ; C. Palmarum, which is nearly 

 two inches long, attacking plants lately stuck in the ground, with such 

 effect, that a fresh planting frequently becomes necessary ; and C. 

 sacchari Guild., which confines itself to leaves already slightly 

 injured. The former of these species is equally injurious to the 

 palms of South America ; its larva, which is called Grugru, being eaten 

 with great relish by the natives when properly cooked. The larva are 

 large, curved, fleshy grubs, destitute of legs, which enclose them- 

 selves in a cocoon, formed of strings of the stem of the plant upon 



* In the Literary Gazette, July 1. 1825, an account is ^wcn of tlio tlcstruction 

 of weevils by means of sheep-skins with the fleece on, placed near the corn, which 

 first attracts, and then destroys, the insects. 



