THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



119 



the impression is, that tlic weevils must have 

 beeii received — the vaiietj' received through 

 tlie latter beiug the "Agricultural." As the 

 Dcpartmcut of Agriculture imports seeds of 

 various kinds, and beans among the rest, au 

 opinion prevails that this insect may have been 

 imported with the beans ; and whether they were 

 brought from Washington City or from Nan- 

 tucket to this county, this opinion may bo well 

 founded iu either case, although we may not be 

 able to account for Say's finding them so long 

 ago in the seeds of the Astnn/alus, iu Indiana. 

 A known European beau-weevil is the Bnir/ius 

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

 following description from Stephens' Manual, 

 is plainly not the nitimanKs: ''Oblong-ovatc; 

 black; thorax with a snowy spot before the 

 scutellum; elytra spotted with white; base of 

 the auteunie and the anterior legs tcstaccous-red; 

 hinder thighs with an obsolete obtuse tooth."' 

 Some have also supposed it to be identical with 

 Bruchusfabi, which is another foreign " beau- 

 weevil,'' but I have not access to a description 

 of that insect, and I am therefore unable to say 

 anything further iu that relation. Specimens 

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

 Cambridge, Mass., and he says the insect is 

 quite common in that Slate, and that the Ento- 

 mologists there have labeled it Rruchus fabi. 

 but docs not state upon what authority, or 

 where a description may be found. Stevens, iu 

 his "Manual of Biitisb Coleoplera,'' describes 

 twelve species oi Bruchus, hntfabi is not among 

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

 is most likely brought hither from the eontif.eut 

 of Europe. 



Probably the most eti'ective, if not the only 

 remedy, to destroy this Beau-weevil, would be 

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

 uot too intense to destroy germination, yet 

 great enough to destroy the larva, or the vitality 

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

 Insects,'' says that the germinaiing powers of 

 wheat is preserved at about I'JO deg. of Eahrn., 

 but that a lower heat, long continued, is more 

 cflective 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 beaus, 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 liud no notice anywhere of any 



Euiopcan Briichux fabi, Linn., and the author 

 who is made to shoulder the name, would cer- 

 tertainly never have committed the atrocious 

 blunder of writing /ait (or fa bcv. The nearest 

 approach to it is Bruchun viciti>, Oliv., of which 

 we have no description ; but all the other Euro- 

 pean species of Brachus difler 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 bv 

 LeConte to obsoletus. Say. It ditlers essentially 

 from the European granarius, which will be 

 found llgured in our "Answers" iu this num- 

 ber, and also from Jtavimanus, Schonh., both of 

 which species Curtis found preying on En<'lish 

 Broad-beans.* Mr. Jas. Angus, of West Farm's, 

 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 tliau U 

 in a sinyle 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. llathvon, but as some of them accord very 

 well with the description, and as Say does not 

 mention how many specimens he examined, 

 those difl'erences cau be considered only as 

 variations. — Ed.] 



•Farm Insects, pp. 3G3-J. 



THE PLUM CURCULIO WILL DEPOSIT IN FRUIT 

 WHICH OVEliHANtJS WATER. 



liV UK. I. V. DIIMBLE, OK NEW JKRSKV. 



Much has been written about planting fruit- 

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

 venting the depredations of the Cnrculio. At 

 the late meeting of the American Pomological 

 Convention in Philadelphia, Dr. Underhill, the 

 well-kown grape-grower at Croton Point, New 

 "i'ork, asserted boldly, when the subject of 

 Plums was under discussion, that the fruit on 

 his trees, planted so as to lean over the water 

 was never sturuj by the CurcuUo. 



It so happened that some members of the 

 Convention who have investigated this matter, 

 were uot present when this strange assertion 

 was made, or it would have been controverted 

 on the spot. 



I feel that-ill the light against insects injuri- 

 ous to fruit, and especially against the Cnrculio, 

 the first thing necessary to be done is to dispel 

 the delusion which prevails so geuerally in the 

 minds of the peoi)le, that there is §ome other 

 way than killing them. 1 have no more faith 

 iu planting over water, than in scores of other 



