THE PEA-WEEVIL. 63 



grub then bores a round hole from the hollow in the centre 

 of the pea quite to the hull, but leaves the latter, and gen- 

 erally the germ of the future sprout, untouched. Hence 

 these buggy peas, as they are called by seedsmen and gar- 

 deners, will frequently sprout and grow when planted. The 

 grub is changed to a pupa within its hole in the pea in the 

 autumn, and before the spring casts its skin again, becomes 

 a beetle, and gnaws a hole through the thin hull in order to 



' O O 



make its escape into the air, which frequently does not hap- 

 pen before the peas are planted for an early crop. After 

 the pea-vines have flowered, and while the pods are young 

 and tender, and the peas within them are just beginning to 

 swell, the beetles gather upon them, and deposit their tiny 

 eggs singly in the punctures or wounds which they make 

 upon the surface of the pods. This is done mostly during 

 the night, or in cloudy weather. The grubs, as soon as 

 they are hatched, penetrate the pod and bury themselves 

 in the opposite peas ; and the holes through which they 

 pass into the seeds are so fine as hardly to be perceived, 

 and are soon closed. Sometimes every pea in a pod will 

 be found to contain a weevil-grub; and so great has been 

 the injury to the crop, in some parts of the country, that 

 the inhabitants have been obliged to give up the cultivation 

 of this vegetable.* These insects diminish the weight of the 

 peas in which they lodge nearly one half, and their leavings 

 are fit only for the food of swine. This occasions a great 

 loss where peas are raised for feeding stock or for family 

 use, as they are in many places. Those persons who eat 

 whole peas in the winter after they are raised, run the risk 

 of eating the weevils also ; but if the peas are kept till they 

 are a year old, the insects will entirely leave them.f 



The pea-weevil is supposed to be a native of the United 

 States. It seems to have been first noticed in Pennsylvania, 



* See Kalm's Travels, (8vo, Warrington, 1770,) Vol. I. p. 173. 

 t See the " Boston Cultivator " for July 1, 1848, for an interesting account of 

 the habits of these insects, by Mr. S. Deane. 



