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XII. Further Obfer vat ions on the Curculio Trtfol'ti. In a Letter ta 

 William Markwick, Efq.F.L.S. by Marlin Chri/lian Gottlieb Leb- 

 mantiy M.A. ofGottingen. 



Read February 7^^ l8oi. 



Sir, 



VV HEN you favoured me, laft fummer, with an account of the 

 damage done to your clover by a number of little maggots, and 

 permitted me to gather fome of the injured flower-heads, I felt in- 

 terefted in the caufe, and became anxious to obferve the ceconomy 

 and changes of this little deftrudlive animal, and by my obfervations, 

 in addition to thofe which you had fent to the Liiinean Society, to 

 endeavour to complete the hiftory of an enemy you had fo unfor- 

 tunately become acquainted with. 



As far as my limited knowledge in the fcience of entomology ex- 

 tends, nothing appears to have been hitherto publiflied of the nature 

 and habits of this infe6l. The French naturaliU: GcofFroy, who 

 firfl: defcribed the perfedl animal, fays it is found on flowers, and 

 calls it le Becmare noir a pattesfauves, but takes no notice of its larva. 

 Fabricius defcribes it as an Attelabus, and obferyes " Habitat prima 

 vere frequem locis apricis calidioribus ;" which perfeclly agrees with my 

 own obfervation, for it was the firft infe6l I found lall fpring in a 

 funny meadow near a fhrubbery. 



The blighted clover heads which I gathered in your grounds in 

 Auguft-were, like all the reft in the field, full of maggots of diflferent 



U 2 fizes, 



