THE AlIEEICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



119 



the iiupressiou is, that the weevils must have 

 beeu received — the variety received tlirough 

 the latter being tlie "Agricultural." As the 

 Departmeut of Agriculture imports seeds of 

 various kinds, and beans among the rest, an 

 opinion prevails that this insect may have been 

 imported with the beans ; and whether they weie 

 brought from Washington City or from Nan- 

 tucket to this county, this opinion may be well 

 founded in either case, although we may not be 

 able to account for Say's finding them so long 

 ago in the seeds of the Astrayalus, in Indiana. 

 A known European bean-weevil is the Bruvhuts 

 rujimanus, Sch. ; but our insect, according to the 

 following description from Stephens' Manual, 

 is plainly not the rujimanus: ''Oblong-ovate; 

 black ; thorax with a snowy spot before the 

 scutellum; elyti-a spotted with Avhite; base of 

 the antenme and the anterior legs testaceous-red; 

 hinder thighs with an obsolete obtuse tooth."' 

 Some have also supposed it to be identical with 

 Bruchusfubi, which is another foreign "beau- 

 weevil,"' but I have not access to a descriptiou 

 of that insect, and I am therefore unable to say 

 anything furtlier in that relation. Specimens 

 were also sent to Mr. Austin, a Coleopterist, of 

 Cambridge, Mass., and he says the insect is 

 <inite common in that State, and that the Ento- 

 mologists there have labeled it Bruchus fabi, 

 but does not state upon what authorit}', or 

 where a descriptiou may be found. Stevens, in 

 his "Manual of British Coleoptera,"' describes 

 twelve species oi Bruchus, hwi fabi is not among 

 them; so that, it it is a foreign importation, it 

 is most likely brought hither from the continent 

 of Europe. 



Probably the most efl'ectivc, if not the only 

 remedy, to destroy this Bean-weevil, would be 

 to subject the ripe beans, in Autumn, to a heat 

 not too intense to destroy germination, yet 

 great enough to destroy the larva, or the vitality 

 of the egg of the insect. Curtis, in his " Farm 

 Insects,"' says that the germinating powers of 

 wheat is preserved at about 190 deg. of Eahrn., 

 but that a lower heat, long continued, is more 

 etiective than a higher degree applied only for 

 a short period. Beans would probably not bear 

 so great a heat as grain, but, by experiment- 

 ing, the safe mean may be attained. It is also 

 recommended that immediately after gathering 

 the beans, they should be thrown into boiling 

 water, and left in for one minute, as the young 

 larva may then, by this means, be killed. As 

 an article of food, beans, infested with weevils, 

 are known to be very unwholesome to man or 

 beast. 



[We can find no notice anywhere of any 



European Bruchus fabi, Linn., and the author 

 who is made to shoulder the name, would cer- 

 tertainly never have committed the atrocious 

 blunder of writing/nii for faba;. The nearest 

 approach to it is Bruchus viciw, Oliv., of which 

 wc have no descriptiou; but all the other Euro- 

 pean species of Bruchus dift'er from this beau- 

 weevil, of which Mr. Rathvon has been kind 

 enough to send us specimens, and we therefore 

 consider it indigenous, and rightly referred by 

 LeConle to obsoletus, Say. It diflers essentially 

 from the European granarius, which will be 

 found figured in our "Answers " in this num- 

 bei-, and also iromflavimanus, Schonh., both of 

 which species Curtis found preying on Eno-lish 

 Broad-beans.* Mr. Jas. Angus, of West Fa°ms, 

 N. Y., sent us in the forepart of November 

 numerous specimens of this same weevil, with 

 the account which appears in our "Jottings from 

 Correspondents." There were no less than 14 

 in a siugle bean, and many were still soft and 

 white, while a few were in the pupa state. 

 Many of these specimens disagree with Say's 

 description in the points already mentioned by 

 Mr. Rathvon, but as some of them accord verv 

 well with the desci-iption, and as Say does not 

 mention how many specimens he examined, 

 those difl'erences can be considered only as 

 variations. — Ed.] 



•Farm Insects, i)i). 363-4. 



THE PLUM CURCULIO WILI; DEPOSIT L\ PKUIT 

 WHICH OVERHAStiS WAIEK. 



BY UK. I, V. Tl;l.-\IBI,E, OF XEW JKRSKV. 



:Much has beeu written about planting fruit- 

 trees so as to lean over water, as a way "of pre- 

 venting the depredations of the Curciilio. At 

 the late meeting of the American Pomological 

 Convention iu Philadelphia, Dr. Underhill° tl,e 

 well-kown grape-grower at Croton Point, New 

 York, asserted boldly, when the subject of 

 Plums was nuder discussion, that the fruit on 

 his trees, planted so as to lean over the water 

 teas necer stuwj by the CurcuUo. 



It so happened that some members of the 

 Convention who have investigated this matter, 

 were not present when this strange assertion 

 was made, or it would have been controverted 

 on the spot. 



I feel that in the fight against insects injuri- 

 ous to fruit, and especially against the Curculio, 

 the first thing necessary to be done is to dispel 

 the delusion which prevails so generally in the 

 minds of the people, that there is some other 

 way than killing them. I have no more ftiith 

 in planting over water, than in scores of other 



