Mr. Mhv.iKA^^s additional Remarks, 145 



The foregoing obfervations of Mr. Markwick furnifh another in- 

 ftance of the deftrudtive property of infefls to the agriculture 

 of this country, prove the necefllty, particularly at this time, of a 

 minute inveftigation into the caufes of the failure of crops, and fully 

 evinces that the praftical entomologift is a valuable member of fociety; 

 as, by difcovecing the oeconomy and perfeft hiftory of thefe minute de- 

 ftroyers, and afcertaining, as much as poflTible, the injury they do, we 

 may either be enabled to difcover a remedy to the evil, or to diffipate 

 our fears when we perceive, as in the cafe of the wheat infedl fo fully 

 defcribed by this gentleman and Mr. Kirby, that Providence has fet 

 bounds to their mifchief, and provided a luitable check to prevent 

 its increafe. The infeft here mentioned has been defcribed by feve- 

 ral authors, fome of whom have given a figure of it ; but they all 

 appear to have been unacquainted with its hiftory except the great 

 Linne, for it is without doubt the Curculio Trifolii of that celebrated 

 naturalift, and defcribed by him in the Appendix Animalium^ Syjl. 

 Nat. vol. iii. p. 224. where he fays, " Habitat in Trifolii montani 

 fpicis, intra quas dedaratur." It is alfo, I prefume, the Curculio Jlavipes 

 of Fabricius, Syjiema Entomologia , p. 133, n. 33, and of Paykul's Mo- 

 nograph, n. 135; but they only obferve, " Habitat frequens prima 

 vere loch apricis calidioribus" GeofFroy calls it U Becmare noire a pattes 

 fauves, in his Hi/loire Abregee des Infedles, tom. i. p. 272, n. 8. and adds 

 to the defcription " On le trouvefur lesjleurs.^'' Fabricius in his En- 

 iomologia Syjiematica emendata has removed it from the genus Curculio^ 

 and attached it to that of Attelabus, in which he has been followed 

 by Panzer in his Entomologia Germanica, p. 298, n. 22, and Fauna 

 Germanica 20, tab. 13, but I think without reafon, and they add 

 nothing to its hiftory. The latter author fays " Habitat in falice^ 

 populo, primo vere" but taking the Habitat merely from the plants 

 on which infects are found, without further examination, muft 

 frequently lead to error. I had examined this infe<St in its per- 



\ou. VI. ~ U fedt 



