THE BEETLE. 



545 



all other beetles are bred from the egg, which 

 is deposited in the ground, or sometimes, though 

 seldom, in the barks of trees, they change into 

 a worm; they subsist in that state by living upon 



unless in fields recently laid down with grass. " The 

 wire worm," says Spence, "is particularly destructive 

 tor a few years in gardens recently converted from pas- 

 ture ground. In the botanic garden at Hull, thus cir- 

 cumstanced, a great proportion of the annuals sown in 

 1813 were destroyed by it. A very simple and effectual 

 remedy, in such cases, was mentioned to me by Sir Joseph 

 Banks. He recommended that slices of potatoes stuck 

 upon skewers, should be buried near the seeds sown, ex- 

 amined every day, and the wire-worm?, which collect 

 upon them in great numbers, destroyed." 



The wire worm is long, slender, and very tough and 

 hard ; but otherwise it has no resemblance to wire, being 

 whitish in colour, of a flattish form, and jointed or ringed. 

 Its breathing spiracles, two in number, are on the back 

 of its last ring. 



An insect of this family (Elater noctilucus, Linn.) is 

 exceedingly destructive in the West Indies to the sugar- 

 rane; the grub, according to Humboldt and Bonpland, 



feeding on its roots and killing the plants The 



insect most destructive to our peas is the pulse beetle 

 (Bruchus granarius, Linn.), which sometimes lays an 

 gg on every pea in a pod, which the grub, when hatched, 

 destroys. In the same way, clover seed is often attacked 

 l>y two or more species of small weevil (Apion, Herbst), 

 known by the yellow colour of their thighs or their feet ; 

 and when the farmer expects to reap considerable profit, 

 he finds nothing but empty husks. 



Great ravages are committed in granaries by the 

 Caterpillars of small moths ; but these are rivalled in the 

 work of destruction by several species of grubs. One of 

 these grubs is called by the French cadelle (Trogosita 

 mauritanica, Olivier), and is reported to have done more 

 damage to housed grain than any other insect.* The 

 pest of the granaries, which is but too well known in 

 this country, is the grain weevil (Calandra granaria, 

 Clairville), the same, probably, which is mentioned by 

 Virgil, 



Populatque ing-entem farris acervvim 

 Curculio. Georgm it 87 . 



- The high stacks of corn 

 Are wasted by the weevil. Trapp. 



Kirby and Spence calculate that a single pair of weevils 

 may produce in one season 6000 descendants ; and they 

 were told by an extensive brewer that he had collected 

 and destroyed them by bushels, meaning, no doubt, in. 

 sects and damaged grain together. 



Another beetle grub, popularly called the meal worm, 

 the larvae of Tenebrio nwlitor, Linn., which lives in that 

 state two years, does no little damage to flour, as well as 

 to bread, cakes, biscuit, and similar articles. Accounts 

 are also given of the ravages committed by the grubs of 

 other beetles, of several species, apparently not well as- 

 certained, upon different sorts of provisions, such as ba- 

 con, ham, dried tongues, ship-biscuit, &c. Sparrman tells 

 us, that he has witnessed the ground peas on ship-board 

 so infested with these grubs, that they were seen in every 

 spoonful of the soup. In the case of soup, or of other 

 food which has been exposed to heat, the only inconveni- 

 ence is the disgust which must ensue ; but, unfortunately, 

 there may sometimes occur circumstances of a more 

 serious nature, from either the eggs or the insects them- 

 selves being incautiously swallowed alive. We do not 

 wish, however, to create, so much as to allay, the fears 

 itertained by those who are unacquainted with the ha- 

 M insects ; and nothing, we are persuaded, will do this 



VOL. II. 



* Oliver, ii. 19. 



the roots of vegetables, or the succulent parts 

 of the bark round them. They generally live 

 a year at least before they change into an au- 

 relia ; in that state they are not entirely mo- 

 more effectually than a statement of facts well ascertained. 

 " Several people," says Abbe de la pluche, "never eat fruit 

 because they believe that spiders and other insects scatter 

 their eggs upon it at random; but even if it were so, as 

 it is not, it would be impossible for the young, should 

 they be hatched in the stomach, to live there for an 

 instant." 



Adhering (continues Mr Rennie) to the distinction of 

 terming those larvae which are destitute of feet, maggots, 

 we shall notice here a very destructive one, which is 

 sometimes popularly called the grub, and sometimes con- 

 founded with the wire worm. We allude to the larva of 

 one or two common species of crane flies (TipuMae), well 

 known by the provincial names of father-long-legs, Jenny- 

 spinners, and tailors. These insects are so common in 

 some meadows, that, being very shy and fearful of danger, 

 they rise in swarms at every step some of them flying 

 high, others only skipping over the grass, and others 

 running and using their long legs as the inhabitants of 

 marshy countries use stilts, and employing their wings 

 like the ostrich to aid their limbs. 



These flies deposit their eggs in the earth; sometimes 

 in grass fields or moist meadows, and sometimes in the 

 tilled ground of gardens and farms. For this purpose 

 the female is provided with an ovipositor well adapted to 

 the operation, consisting of a sort of pincer or forceps of 

 a horny consistence, and sharp at the point. By pres- 

 sure, as Reaumur says, the eggs may be extruded from 

 this in the same way as the stone can be easily squeezed 

 out of a ripe cherry. 



The eggs are exceedingly small and black, like grains 

 of gunpowder, and each female lays a good many hun- 

 dreds. The position which she assumes appears some- 

 what awkward, for she raises herself perpendicularly on 

 her two hind legs, using her ovipositor as a point of sup- 

 port, and resting with her fore legs upon the contiguous 

 herbage. She then thrusts her ovipositor into the ground 

 as far as the first ring of her body, and leaves one or more 

 eggs in the hole; and next moves onwards to another 

 place, but without bringing herself into a horizontal posi- 

 tion. The maggot, when hatched from the egg, imme- 

 diately attacks the roots of the grass and other herbage 

 which it finds nearest to it; and of course the portion of 

 the plant above ground withers for lack of nourishment. 

 In many districts of England these insects cut ofl'a large 

 proportion of the wheat crop, particularly, it would appear, 

 when it has been sown on clover leys. 



The maggot of a minute fly of the same family, 

 known by the name of the wheat fly, (Cecidomyia Tri- 

 tid, Kirby), is frequently productive of great damage 

 in the crops of wheat. The parent fly is very small, 

 not unlike a midge (Culicoidcs punctata, Latr.), of an 

 orange colour, and wings rounded at the tip, and fring- 

 ed with hairs. The female is furnished with a re- 

 tractile ovipositor, fdlr times as long as the body, and as 

 fine as a hair, for depositing her eggs, which she does in 

 the glumes of the florets of the grain. 



The Hessian fly of America is a little larger than our 

 wheat fly, more slender in the body, has longer legs, and 

 is not orange, but black and fulvous. The female depo- 

 sits from one to eight or more eggs on a single plant of 

 wheat, between the sheath of the inner leaf and the stem 

 nearest the roots ; in which situation, with its head to- 

 wards the root or first joint, the young larva passes the 

 winter, eating into the stem, and causing it to break. 



The devastation committed by the Hessian fly seems 

 to have been first observed in 1776, and it was errone- 

 ously supposed that the insect was conveyed among straw 

 by the Hessian troops from Germany. It was first 

 3 z 



