68 CURCULIONTD^E — WEEVILS. 



of the Meal-worm — the larvae of the Darkling — Tenehrio 

 molitor. It may be interesting^ toiearn that, by means of 

 tnrpentine in laro'e doses, this unfortunate woman was at 

 length entirely rid of her pests.^ 



Curculionidae — Weevils. 



At Rio Janeiro, the brilliant Diamond-beetle, Eidimis 

 nobilis, is in great request for brooches for gentlemen, and 

 ten piasters are often paid for a single specimen. In this 

 city many owners send their slaves out to catch insects, so 

 that now the rarest and most brilliant species are to be had 

 at a comparatively trifling sum. Each of these slaves, when 

 he has attained to some adroitness in this operation, may, 

 on a fine day, catch in the vicinity of the city as many as 

 five or six hundred beetles. So this trade is considered 

 there very lucrative, since six milresis (four rix dollars, or 

 about fourteen shillings) are paid for the hundred. For 

 these splendid insects there is a general demand ; and their 

 wing-cases are now sought for the purpose of adorning the 

 ladies of Europe — a fashion, it is said, which threatens the 

 entire extinction of this beautiful tribe.^ 



Messrs. Kidder and Fletcher tell us that in Brazil "a 

 commerce is carried on in artificial flowers made from 

 beetles' wings, fish-scales, sea-shells, and feathers, which 

 attract the attention of every visitor. These are made," 

 they continue, "by the mulheres (women) of almost every 

 class, and thus they obtain not only pin-money, but some 

 amass wealth in the traflic."^ Among the beetles referred 

 to by these gentlemen may be placed no doubt the 

 Eutimis nohilii^. 



Among the largest of the species of this family is the 

 Palm-weevil, Calandra palmarum, which is of an uni- 

 form black color, and measures more than two inches in 



1 In Kirby's Wonderful Museum, iv. 3G0, there are several instances 

 of living insects being found in the human stomach, quite as extra- 

 ordinai-y as the above. 



2 The Mirror, xxviii. 304. 

 ^ Ilisl. of Brazil, p. 346. 



