WEEVIL. 05 



nourishing more than two of the young brood 

 when hutched,) and this she does to live or six 

 grains every day, for several days together: these 

 eggs, not above the size of a grain of sand, in 

 about seven days, produce a small white maggot 

 or larva, which devours the substance of the grain 

 in which it is lodged, and then changes into a 

 chrysalis, from which, in about fourteen days, 

 proceeds the complete insect. This is, perhaps, 

 the insect mentioned by Virgil, among the animals 

 injurious to corn. 



" populatquc ingentemfams acerrum 



Curculio." 



Another species, which also makes its unwelcome 

 appearance among corn, is the Curculio f rumen- 

 tarius. Its size is that of the granarius or /Feeril, 

 and its colour a bright red : it is an insect of great 

 beauty, and is frequently seen during the autumnal 

 season creeping about sunny walls, &c. 



Many of the exotic species are of very con- 

 siderable size and possessed of great beauty of 

 colour; but of all the insects of the genus Curculio, 

 and even (in the opinion of some entomologists), of 

 all known insects, the most brilliant and beautiful 

 is the Curculio impcrialis or Imperial Curculio, 

 commonly known by the name of the Diamond 

 Beetle. It is a native of Brasil, and usually mea- 

 sures about an inch in length: the ground-colour 

 of the wing-sheaths is coal-black, but along each 

 are distributed numerous parallel rows of sparkling 

 concavities, of a round shape, and of a gold-green 



v. vi. P. i. 5 



