134 THE RHYNCHOPHORA. 



then cuts through the stalk so as to allow the fruit to 

 fall to the ground. Some little pear-shaped species, 

 with long beaks and straight antennae, belonging to 

 the genus Apion, attack the seeds of clover in our 

 fields, and often do great damage to the crops of that 

 valuable plant; and the small white grubs so often 

 met with in peas are the larvae of a species of this 

 group (the Bruchus Pisi), which is sometimes so abun- 

 dant as to do no small injury to the leguminous pro- 

 duce of our gardens and fields. 



Other species not unfrequently attack peas, beans, 

 and vetches when stored, but the destructive powers of 

 all these insects are completely thrown into the shade 

 by the wholesale devastations committed by the com- 

 mon Corn Weevil (Calandra granaria], to which, 

 indeed, the name of "Weevil" properly belongs. 

 This little beetle, which rarely exceeds one- sixth of 

 an inch in length, and is entirely of a blackish-red 

 colour, is found abundantly in granaries all over the 

 country. It lays its eggs in the grains of corn (one 

 in each), and the larvae hatched from these bury 

 themselves in the substance of the grain, upon which 

 they feed in security, giving no external indication of 

 their existence, although they often consume nearly 

 the whole of the farinaceous matter, leaving the grain 

 a mere empty shell. When full grown they undergo 

 their change to the pupa state, in the convenient 

 little chamber which they have thus formed, and on 

 attaining their perfect state, make their appearance 

 in the world by eating through the husk of the 

 corn. 



Some species are also injurious to trees by boring 

 into the wood of their trunks, sometimes completely 

 destroying young plantations. This has been the 



