ruE iji:ktle. o/3 



Of ill! tlie t)eetlc kiml tliis is the most numerous, and tlicre. 

 fore deserves the chief attention of history. I'he numerous 

 varieties of othei kinds might repay the curiosity of the diligent 

 observer, but we must be content in general to observe, that in 



The grub called tlu' ivire vorm, tlioiigli not very appropriately, is the lar. 

 \;i i>f one of the spi hij? or click beetles, known by their Ion? flatiisli btdy, 

 a id Ihtir power oi spriuf^iiig with a clicking; sound out of the hand wlieu 

 caught, 'i'he grubs of the click beetles are said to contiuue live years before 

 producing the perfect insect. During this time the grub feeds chiefly oil 

 the roots of wheat, rye, oats, barley, and grass ; but seems also sometimes 

 to attack the larger roots of potatoes, carrots, and salads. Its ravages are 

 often so extensive as to cut off' entire crops of grain. It appears to be most 

 partial to land newly broken up; and lias not been found so abundant in 

 meadows and pastures, unless in fields recently laid down with grass. " 'I'he 

 wire worm," says Spcnce, " is particularly destructiv e for a few years in gar. 

 dens recently converted from pasture ground. In the botanic garden at Hull, 

 thus circumstanced, a great proportion of the annuals sown in JS13 were 

 destroyed by it. A very simple and efiectual remedy, in such rases, was 

 mentioned to me by Sir Joseph Banks. He recommended that slices of po. 

 tatoes stuck upon skewers, should be buried near the seeds sown,e.\amined 

 every day, and the wire-worms, which cidlect upon them in great numbers, 

 destroyed." 



The wire worm is long, slender, and very tough and hard; but otlierwi?e 

 it has no resemblance to wire, being whitish in colour, of a flattish form, 

 and jointed or ringed. Its breathing spiracles, two iu number, are on the 

 back of its last ring. An insect of this family is exceedingly destructive, in 

 the West Indies, to the sugar-cane ; the grub, according to Hiunboldt and 

 Bonpland, feeding on its roots and killing the plants. 



Even when agricultural produce escapes being devoured at the root, or 

 the young shoots eaten up, the seeds are often made the prey of the grubs 

 of beetles and weevils. Among the first, the gnawing beetles are very de- 

 Btructive. In North America, the pea beetle commits such extensive de. 

 predations on pulse, that in some districts the sowing of peas has been 

 abandoned as useless. The insect most destructive to our peas is the pulse 

 beetle, which sometimes lays an eg^ on every pea in a pod, which the grub, 

 when hatched, destroys In the same way, clover seed is often attacked by 

 two or more species of small weevil, known by the yellow colour of theit 

 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 several species of grubs. 

 One of these grubs is called by the French ctidelle, and is reported to ha»e 

 dime more damage to housed grain than any other insect. The pest of the 

 granaries, which is but too «ell known in this country, is the grain weevil. 

 Kirby and Spence calculate that a single pair of weevils may produce in 

 line season 6000 descendants ; and they were told by an e.xtensive brewer 

 that he had collected and destroyed them by bushels, — meaning, no doubt, 

 insects and damaged grain together. 



Another beetle grub, popularly called the menl worm, the larva of Tcne- 

 trto molitof, Li.nn., which livcb iu that state two years, doe^ no Uttle dam 



