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are aware how many insects they unconsciously con- 

 sume. When the pods are carefully examined, small, 

 discolored spots may be seen within them, each one 

 corresponding to a similar spot on the opposite pea. 

 If this spot in the pea be opened, a minute, whitish 

 grub or maggot will be discovered. It is the insect in 

 its larva form, which hves upon the marrow of the 

 pea, and arrives at its full size by the time that the 

 pea becomes dry. It then bores a round hole quite 

 to the hull, which however is left untouched, as is also 

 the germ of the future sprout. In this hole the insect 

 passes the pupa state, and survives the winter ; at the 

 expiration of which, its last change being completed, 

 it has only to gnaw through the thin hull, and make its 

 exit, which frequently is not accompHshed before the 

 pease are committed to the ground for an early crop. 

 Pease, thus affected, are denominated huggy by seeds- 

 men and gardeners ; and the Httle insects, so often 

 seen within them in the spring, are incorrectly called 

 bugs, a term of reproach indiscriminately applied to 

 many kinds of insects which have no resemblance to 

 each other in appearance and habits. The pea Bru- 

 chus,* for such is its correct name, is a small beetle, 

 a native of this continent, having been unknown in 

 Europe before the discovery of America. Early in the 

 spring, while the pods are young and tender, and the 

 pease are just beginning to swell, it makes small perfo- 

 rations in the epidermis or thin skin of the pod, and de- 

 posits in each a minute egg. These eggs are always 

 placed opposite to the pease, and the grubs, when 



* Bruchus Pisi. L. 



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