170 THE WOODLANDS. 



the effect of a large moving body of light. The 

 Chinese lantern-fly is not a beetle ; and even centi- 

 pedes have the power of emitting light, as we have 

 proved by experience. 



The State Entomologist in a country speaking our 

 own language, but in which the State encourages the 

 pursuit of economic science much more than in our 

 own, summarizes in a very compact manner the 

 general features of the Snout Beetles, or Weevils, of 

 which he remarks that there are not less than ten 

 thousand good and distinct species known to be 

 dispersed over the globe. He says they axe at once 

 distinguished from all other families by the front of 

 the head being produced into a more or less elongated 

 snout or rostrum, at the extremity of which the mouth 

 is situated. The larvae are whitish or yellowish fleshy 

 grubs. Now there is hardly one of the one hundred 

 families of insects from which so many injurious 

 species can be enumerated, for, with the exception of 

 one species, whose larva was found to destroy bark- 

 lice, they are all vegetarians, the larvae inhabiting 

 either the roots, stems, leaves, or fruits of plants; and 

 the beetles feeding on the same. So whenever you 

 find an insect with the character just given, you may 

 rest morally certain that it is injurious, and should be 

 destroyed without mercy. This family is not only 

 one of the most injurious, but, on account of the 

 secretive habits of the larvae, the insects comprising 

 it are the most difficult to control. When a worm is 

 openly and above-board denuding our trees, we at 

 least readily become aware of the fact, and can, if we 

 choose, apply the remedy ; but when it surreptitiously,, 



