260 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Sep 



guide the eggs in their passage into the hole prepared for 

 them by the pair of borers." The whole apparatus, there- 

 fore, is something like a combination of an auger and a 

 spoon. The study will make this clear. When egg-lay- 

 ing the creature balances itself on its two hind legs and 

 ovipositor, whilst the fore front legs are up in the air. I 

 have also slides of Sheep-tick and ovipositor of Wild 

 Bee. Is this the ovipositor ? It is a strange one. — T. O. 

 Jefferys. 



Disjecta Membra of Common Weevil. — It is no use 

 mounting this very hard and opaque beetle whole, as one 

 cannot see anything in that way. The weevils are an or- 

 der of Coleoptera, tbe common weevil being an example, 

 and are furnished with long snouts. Hence they are also 

 called Rhyncophora=snout bearers. The really distin- 

 guishing mark of the order is the elbowed antenna. These 

 common weevils are found in immense numbers in the 

 wheat imported from Caleutta and from Australia, and in- 

 fest granaries and mills. They bore a hole in the wheat 

 grain with their long snouts, which are furnished with a 

 row of teeth at the tip, by a sort of turning movement, 

 and in this hole the egg is laid. The hole is then plug- 

 ged with gum secreted by the female, and the grain looks 

 none the worse. The egg hatches in a few days. The 

 change from larva to pupa, and from pupa to imago, takes 

 place within the grain. The imago eats its way out. They 

 are said to breed only when the temperature is above 65° 

 F. It is a remarkable thing that they never injure the 

 germ of the grain, which therefore grows as well when it 

 has served as a nest and home for this little pest as pre- 

 viously. The eyes at the base of the snout should be 

 noticed, and also the gizzard. 



Ovipositor of Wild Bee. — I do not know the name of 

 this bee. There are, I believe, over 200 species of wild 

 bees in England. This is large, long, and black, one that 

 I have never seen except in the autumn, and which seems 



