114 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



inhabitants of the warmer regions of Europe, often nourishes in its berries 

 the destructive maggot of a fly (Dacus oleaf) ; and the caterpillar of a 

 little moth (Tinea oleelld), which preys upon the kernel of the nucleus, 

 occasions them to fall before they are ripe. The larvae of two beetles 

 Hylesinus oleiperda and Pktoiotribus olecB, attack the bark and alburnum of 

 the young branches ; another beetle, Otiorhynchus meridionalis Schon., 

 devours the young shoots and leaves ; and the sap is injuriously abstracted 

 by Coccus ole<e, and by Psylla ulece Fons. 1 , as well as by Thrips physapus, 

 which in Tuscany has of late years threatened the olive trees of some 

 districts with destruction, by attacking the young leaves and buds. 2 

 Every one who eats nuts knows that they are very often inhabited by a 

 small white grub ; this is the offspring of a weevil (Balaninus nifcuni), 

 remarkable for its long and slender rostrum, with which it perforates the 

 shell when young and soft, and deposits an egg in the orifice. In France 

 it sometimes happens, when the chestnuts promise an abundant crop, that 

 the fruit falls before it comes to maturity, scarcely any remaining upon the 

 trees. The caterpillar of a moth which eats into its interior is the cause of 

 this disappointment. 3 Of fruits the date has the hardest nucleus ; yet 

 an insect of the same tribe with the above, that feeds upon its kernel, is 

 armed with jaws sufficiently strong to perforate it, that it may make its 

 escape when the time of its change is arrived, and assume the pupa 

 between the stone and the flesh. And another moth, the Pyralis brunnea, 

 feeds on the pulp of the fruit, and there undergoes its metamorphosis. 4 

 The date is eaten also by a beetle which Hasselquist calls a Dcrmcstes. 5 

 Another foreign fruit, the tamarind, has i^s stone, which is nearly as hard 

 as that of the date, attacked by a weevil of the same genus as the corn-weevil 

 of which, in the larva state, sometimes as many as forty are found in a single 

 stone. 6 The pomegranate, in the East Indies, has its interior eaten by the 

 caterpillar of the hair-streak butterfly (Thecla Isocrates}, of whose economy 

 Mr. Westwood has given so interesting an account. 7 



In these last-named fruits, however, we have a far slighter interest than 

 in another of our imported ones, the orange, of which, in 1841 (including 

 lemons), we consumed upwards of 302,000 chests, paying a gross duty of 

 63,975^., and which may be regarded as the most valuable of the whole, 

 combining a highly intrinsic excellence with a price which brings it within 

 the reach of all. It appears, however, from the interesting and important 

 facts stated by W. S. MacLeay, Esq., that we might have oranges still 

 cheaper, were it not for a little fly (Ceratitis citriperda), which lays its eggs 

 in them before their shipment from the Azores ; and the grubs subsequently 

 disclosed often so greatly injure them, that the orange merchants calculate 

 on losing one third of their average importations, and of course reimburse 

 themselves by a proportionate advance of the price to the consumers. 8 



1 M. Boyer de Fonscolombe in Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, ix. 101. 



2 Passerini, Alcuni Notizie, &c. 



3 Beaum. ii. 505. 4 Guerin-Meneville, Revue Zoolog. 1841, p. 246. 



5 Ibid. ii. 507. and Hasselquist's Travels in the Levant, 428. 



6 Christy in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. i. 7 ibid. ii. 1. 



8 Zoological Journ. iv. 475. This fly, which Dr. Heineken states is common in 

 Madeira, and that he has also hatched it from lemons and peaches (Zoo/. Journ. v. 

 199.), seems to be the same species with Petalophora (Trypeta Wied.), capitata 

 Macq. (Dipteres, ii. 454.), so named from the two singular clavate processes between 

 the eves of the male. It may be easily obtained from decaying oranges, on the out- 

 side of which the grub assumes the pupa state. 



