CUCUJUS MONILICORNIS AND CALANDRA GRANARIA. 35 
Entomologists. It has, however, been described, and its trans- 
formations traced, by Olivier*, whose account has been adopted by 
succeeding naturalists. 
The countless multitudes in which the corn weevil sometimes 
occurs almost exceed belief; the men who had the care of this 
parcel of wheat assured me, that during the summer they regularly 
screened it once a month, or once in five weeks, and that at each 
screening they got about fourteen bushels of weevils.t Thequantity 
of weevils may appear incredible to those unacquainted with such 
matters, but it must be borne in mind, that, under favourable 
circumstances, they increase amazingly. Kirby and Spence, in 
the “Introduction to Entomology,” Vol. L., p. 170, speaking of 
the corn weevil say, “sometimes this pest becomes so infinitely 
numerous, that a sensible man engaged in the brewing trade once 
told me, speaking perhaps rather hyperbolically, that they col- 
lected and destroyed them by bushels; and no wonder, for a 
single pair of these destroyers may produce in one year above 
six thousand descendants.” De Geer makes them still more pro- 
lific. He asserts that, “a single pair, in the course of a season, 
will produce (among themselves, and their descendants,) twenty- 
three thousand six hundred individuals;{ and an instance came 
under my own observation, in which six bushels of weevils alone 
were taken at one screening, out of eight or ten lasts of Danish 
rye. 
The weevils do not confine their ravages to wheat and rye, but 
have been found to attack barley, malt, oats, and maize, with 
equal readiness; and Curtis observed some, that during the win- 
ter ate up some pearl barley. 
The great importance of this subject has led to the suggestion 
of a variety of expedients for the destruction of the weevils; but 
unfortunately a practically useful one is still a desideratum. It 
is said that the odour of spirits of turpentine, and even fumiga- 
tion with sulphur, have been tried without benefit. Screening the 
* Encyclopédie Méthodique, Vol. V., p. 488. 
+ Of course this would include Cucwjus, Weevils, and the excrement of the 
latter, which is a white, round seed-like substance. 
t Encycl. Brit. Vol. IX. p. 175. 
