OJtf THE EAliM AND GARDEN. 19 



BEAN. 



THE AMERICAN BEAN-WEEVIL. 

 (Bruchus fabce, Riley.) 



This Weevil appears to be a native American insect 

 and doubtless fed originally on some kind of wild bean 

 (Phaseolus or Lathyrus), but it was first noticed in our 

 cultivated beans about the year 1861, in Khode Island, 

 and has since, at different times, suddenly made its 

 appearance in several other parts of the country. 



If, as has been supposed, it possibly occurs over large 

 tracts of our country, the fact that, until a few years ago, 

 it had never been collected by any American entomolo- 

 gist, would strongly intimate that, in what may be 

 termed its wild state, it was quite rare and had a limited 

 range. But even if it should occur in this wild state 

 more generally through the country than the facts would 

 lead us to believe, there is nevertheless more danger of 

 its being introduced into a bean field hitherto exempt by 

 the planting of infested cultivated beans, than by its 

 spreading from the wild food. And if once a few buggy 

 beans are planted, they will in a short time infest the other 

 beans cultivated in the neighborhood, so that the man 

 who, year after year, grows his own seed, will suffer as 

 much as the man who originally introduces the weevils 

 from afar. 



Except in being smaller, the larva and pupa of this 

 weevil have a close resemblance to those of the Pea- 

 weevil, and its habits are very similar, with the excep- 

 tion that the female deposits a greater number of eggs 

 on a single pod, so that sometimes over a dozen larvse 

 enter a single bean. As many as fourteen have been 

 counted in one bean, and the space required for each indi- 

 vidual to develop is not much more than sufficient to 



