84: THE PESTS OF THE FARM. 



Our insect-eating birds undoubtedly devour many of these in- 

 sects, and deserve to be cherished and protected for their services. 

 Rose-bugs are also eaten greedily by domesticated fowls ; and when 

 they become exhausted and fall to the ground, or when they are 

 about to lay their eggs, they are destroyed by moles, insects, and 

 other animals, which lie in wait to seize them. 



PEA BUG. In the spring of the year we often find, among seed- 

 pease, many that have holes in them ; and, if the pease have not 

 been exposed to the light and air, we see a little insect peeping 

 out of each of these holes, and waiting apparently for an opportu- 

 nity to come forth and make its escape. If we turn out the crea- 

 ture from its cell, we perceive it to be a small oval beetle, rather 

 more than one-tenth of an inch long, of a rusty black color, with a 

 white spot on the hinder part of the thorax, four or five white dots 

 behind the middle of each wing-cover, and a white spot, shaped 

 like the letter T, on the exposed extremity of the body. This little 

 insect is the Eruchus Pm'of Linnaeus, the pea-Bruchus, or pea-wee- 

 vil, but is better known in America by the incorrect name of pea- 

 bug. The original meaning of the word Bruchus is a devourer, 

 and the insects to which it is applied well deserve this name, for, 

 in the larva state, they devour the interior of seeds, often leaving 

 but little more than the hull untouched. The body is oval, and 

 slightly convex ; the head is bent downwards, so that the broad 

 muzzle, when the insects are not eating, rests upon the breast ; the 

 antennae are short, straight, and saw-toothed within, and are in- 

 serted close to a deep notch in each of the eyes ; the feelers, though 

 very small, are visible ; the wing-cases do not cover the end of the 

 abdomen ; and the hindmost thighs are very thick, and often 

 notched or toothed on the under-side, as is the case in the pea-wee- 

 vil. These beetles frequent the leguminous or pod-bearing plants, 

 such as the pea, during and immediately after the flowering season ; 

 they pierce the tender pods of these plants, and commonly lay only 

 one egg in each seed, the pulp of which suffices for the food of the 

 little maggot-like grub hatched therein. 



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, destitute of feet, will be found therein. It is the 

 weevil in its larva form, which lives upon the maiiow of the pea, 

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

 This larva or grub then bores a round hole from the hcllow in ti 



