236 , THE BEAN CROP. 



he has been detected puncturing the base of the flower, 

 for the purpose of more readily getting at its contents, 

 which his bulk prevented him from arriving at in the 

 ordinary way. This, in some seasons, is very destructive 

 to tlie crop, as the flower, thus injured, is rendered par- 

 tially or entirely abortive, no pod is produced, and a 

 proportionably lessened yield is the consequence. Two 

 species of humble-bees have been caught in the act, 

 "flagrante delicto" iheBombus terrestris and the B. luco- 

 rum. Curtis tells us that they form their nests in old 



1. Bombus lucorum (Wood Humble-Bee). 2 and 3. Apertures in calyx of flower, 

 punctured by proboscis of insect. 4. Bomhus terrestris (Earth Humble-Bee). 



loose walls, at roots of trees, &c., live through the winter, 

 and resort to the willows when in flower. They, too, 

 fortunately for us, have their enemies, which check their 

 powers of injuring our crops. The butcher-birds destroy 

 vast numbers of them ; while the maggots of certain flies 

 and moths, the Volucella inanis and the Ilithya colonella, 

 not only destroy them, but eat up their store of honey 

 also. 



About the same period of flowering, another class of 

 insects, the Bruchidce " bugs or beetles " commence 



