34 ON THE DAMAGE DONE TO WHEAT BY 
much reduced, that, I have not the least doubt, but that the ac- 
tual loss is more than double the computed amount. A curious cir- 
cumstance, and which I do not remember to have seen satisfac- 
torily accounted for, is the bad condition of all grain infested 
with weevils, it being always more or less “heated.” This heat- 
ing the warehouse-men attribute to the natural warmth of the 
beetles; but I would think, that it is more likely to be caused 
by the tendency to fermentation of the moistened and injured 
grain. The difference of weight mentioned—444, 463, and 564 
Tbs. per bushel, is caused by the position of the wheat in the 
warehouse; the lightest is from the centre of the loft, where 
the grain generally lies thickest, and the heaviest, from the out- 
side or ends of the heap, which are cooler and not so much in- 
fested as the centre, where the temperature is much higher, and 
more congenial to the habits of the insects. 
The agents in this destruction are Cucujus monilicornis,* and 
Calandra granaria. The first is a very small beetle not exceed- 
ing one line in length. Curtis, in the “Journal of the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England,” Part I, 1846, p. 104, has 
made some remarks on the species of Cucujus that have been 
found in granaries, and, amongst others, mentions that, C. mon- 
tlicornis “ was observed in granaries, and corn-bins, in Norfolk, 
about 30 years back, in the month of December.” Whether or 
not this species is attendant on the weevils, [am unable to say. 
I have cut open some of the grains of wheat, and found as many 
as five or six individuals in each grain. Curtis, in the wheat 
that he examined from Ancona, which was infested by C. testa- 
ceus, found two or three dead individuals, in the interior of the 
grain, and the husk was pierced with very minute holes. I have 
also detected C. monilicornis in Madras rice, imported direct 
from the East Indies. 
But the principal agent in this mischief is the weevil, and it 
is not a little singular that the larva, which is said to “make 
the greatest havoc amongst the corn,” is undescribed by British 
* JT had a two ounce phial filled with living specimens brought me in the 
beginning of November. They had a peculiar, strong, unpleasant smell. 
