THE AGKICULTUPvAL PESTS OF INDIA. 33 



which old mats are lying about. Their bites become 

 red and inflamed. Its scientific name needs to be 

 determined. 



Brassica campestris, Linn., sub-species B. napus, Linn., 

 the rape, is peculiarly liable to the attacks of a species of 

 blight, and in damp seasons in the North- Western Pro- 

 vinces, every plant in a field is not uncommonly covered 

 with tiny insects (aphides), which suck the sap from the 

 flowering shoots, and effectually prevent any seed from 

 forming. D. & F. Vern. Eai. Sarson. 



Bruchus and Rhynchites are weevils of the family 

 Ehynchophora, order Coleoptera. They are small, but 

 their ravages are of the highest detriment to the repro- 

 ductiveness of the forests of the North- Western Provinces. 

 Entire seed crops of the Shorea robusta were destroyed 

 in the year 1863. All the weevil family insert their 

 eggs in the stigma of the flower, which, when developed, 

 has introduced the young larvae (which are hatched 

 meanwhile) into the recently formed fruit or pericarp. 

 In this the larvae live till nearly mature, when, by their 

 encroachments towards the stalk, they cause the seed or 

 fruit to fall, and they escape into the earth to undergo 

 the transformation into the pupa state. Species of 

 bruchus are highly destructive of the forests of Northern 

 India. Bruchus weevils attack most leguminous seed- 

 pods, peas, beans, gram ; and live in the seed till per- 

 fectly developed, when they escape by making an oval 

 or circular orifice. Bruchus granarius, Linn., is the bean- 

 beetle of Europe. Two species of bruchus attack the 

 stored poppy seed both in the larva and perfect state. 

 One of them, about four lines long, is of a brownish 

 colour, with its wing cases striated. It rapidly shells the 

 seeds, which also are injured and united by the gluey 



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