OBSERVATIONS ON THE WEEVIL. 153 



sects. The following account in the Entomological Magazine, of 

 the Weevil, which infests apple trees, is so graphic, that I can- 

 not resist transcribing it for the edification and amusement of the 

 numerous readers of yoar periodical. 



" By carefully examining the bark of an apple-tree in the win- 

 ter, you will occasionally find a pretty little beetle in the cracks, 

 which, immediately on being touched, shams dead, and drops on 

 the ground, where you will not, without great difficulty discover 

 it on account of its great similarity of colour ; you must therefore 

 hunt till you find another. This time as soon as you see him, 

 place your hand below him, then touch him lightly with a little bit 

 of stick, and he will drop into your open hand ; his own scheme 

 for self-preservation will beat him. Now roll him into a quill or 

 pill-box, and take him home. Place him in a sheet of writing 

 paper, and you will soon see his shape. The head is furnished 

 with a trunk, from which, on each side springs a feeler bent at 

 right angles forward, so that the trunk altogether looks to be 

 three-pronged like a trident. The thorax and wing cases are 

 brown, beautifully mottled, and an oblique line on each, pointing 

 towards the meeting of the whig cases, is much lighter coloured 

 and gives the little beetle the appearance of having a letter V 

 obscurely chalked on its back. Its size altogether is rather less 

 than a hemp seed. With the first sun shiny day in March, these 

 Weevils leave their winter-quarters, crawl up the trunk, and 

 along the twigs, perch themselves so that they might receive the 

 full benefit of the sun's rays, and plume themselves with their 

 legs and feet all over, trident and all, just in the same manner 

 that a cat washes her face with her paws ; then they put out one 

 leg at a time, cramped, no doubt, by the long confinement ; they 

 lift up their wing cases, and unfolds two large transparent wings, 

 though twice as large as the wing-cases, were neatly folded up 

 and hidden under them, and then launching themselves into the 

 air, they go roving about the orchards and gardens, their little 

 hearts in an ectasy of freedom, and love, and happiness. It is not 

 long before each find a suitable mate : no relations raise objec- 

 tions, and the nuptials are consummated without further delay. 

 \uw I will allow the gentleman Weevil to go his way in quest of 

 a new lover, and other conquests ; and in the meantime I will ob- 

 serve the conduct of the lady. By the time the female is ready 

 for the important task of depositing her eggs, the spring has con- 

 siderably advanced, the apple buds have burst, and the little 



Vol. VI No 65 p 



