Mr. W. Mills on the Corn ffeeviL 9A\ 



exactly opposed to the dorsal vessel, or the heart. In the three first 

 segments the first and last transverse connecting muscle (fig. 9, t, p,) 

 lies over it, and also the oblique and internal muscles, which form the 

 cross (fig. 9, X.), and the internal first abdominal muscles (fig. 9, x.) ; 

 the other parts of the nervous system are free, and only covered by 

 fat and the intestine. 



XLIX. Observations upon the Corn Weevil^ contained in a 

 Letter addressed to the Rev. F. W. Hope, F.R.S., Pres. 

 E,S., 8^c. By William Mills, Esq., F.L.S., ^c. 



[Read 2nd November, 1835.] 



I SPENT from the month of January till August this year (1835) in 

 Madeira vi^ith my friend Lord Vernon, with, whom I went out in his 

 yacht, the Harlequin, and I had an opportunity of observing a good 

 deal upon the Weevil {Calandra granaria). What the progress of 

 the annual laying of the es,^ in common wheat is I am not quite pre- 

 pared to say, as Shaw declares that the female perforates a grain of 

 wheat and lays its eggs ; but I am inclined to differ with him in 

 that ; and in regard to Indian corn, I am pretty certain that the 

 animal lays its egg in the blossom, and that the corn is formed with 

 the Q^^ in the heart. I examined very many grains for several days, 

 and most minutely, with a microscope, and could discover no signs 

 of perforation anywhere, although the chrysalis was evidently there 

 in the centre of the grain. I then cut the grain open, took the chry- 

 salis out, but could discover no wound of any nature in the corn 

 itself by which it could have been lodged from without : this hap- 

 pened so continually that it leads me to suppose that it must have 

 been deposited during blossom. I then tried at what heat I could 

 hatch them, and I found 110° Fahrenheit succeeded, whilst from 

 130° to 140° of heat kills them. A gentleman of the name of Wil- 

 kinson, in Maderia, has now established a heated room with hot 

 water pipes, in which he receives as many as 800 bags of wheat at 

 a time ; these become heated through at about 1 35°, and the wheat, 

 when resifted, is perfectly cleansed from these noxious insects, and 

 makes quite as good bread as before. I also tried some of it in the 

 ground that had been subjected to this heat, and it came up. It is 

 very possible I may not have communicated anything very new to 



