78 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 



well-known ; the eggs are laid on the young green pods ; the grub on hatching eats its way 

 in and penetrates one of the forming pease. There it remains until full-grown, con- 

 suming the interior of the pea and passing through all its stages from a white fleshy 

 grub to the chrysalis and then to the perfect beetle. A small proportion of the beetles 

 emerge the same autumn and pass the winter under rubbish or in barns and other build- 

 ing. The larger number, however, remain in the pease and do not emerge until the next 

 spring, so that they are frequently sown with the seed. The perfect insects fly easily 

 and resort to the pea fields about the time the blossoms appear. They feed for some 

 time on the flowers and leaves, and egg-laying takes place as soon as the pods are formed. 



Remedies. — The best remedy for this insect is, undoubtedly, to treat the seed with 

 bisulphide of carbon. Nearly all the large seed houses have special buildings for this 

 purpose, and few seed pease are sold which have not been treated. Should it be found, 

 however, when sowing pease, that they contain living weevils, it is an easy matter to treat 

 them. Perhaps the most convenient way for farmers is to take an ordinary 45 gallon coal 

 oil barrel. Into this 5 bushels of pease may be put at one time. According to the 

 quantity of seed to be treated, use 1 ounce of bisulphide to every 100 pounds of pease ; 

 therefore, if th» barrel is filled, put 3 ozs. of the chemical in a flat, open saucer or basin 

 on the top, or pour it right on the pease ; cover up the top quickly with a damp sack or 

 other cloth and put some boards over that. Bisulphide of carbon is a colourless liquid 

 which volatilizes readily at ordinary temperatures ; the vapour which is quite invisible, 

 but has a strong, unpleasant odour, is heavier than air, therefore sinks readily and per- 

 meates the contents of any closed receptacle. This liquid ia very inflammable ; so great 

 care must be taken with it. The pease should be treated under a shed out of doors, and 

 should be kept tightly closed up for 48 hours. No light of any kind must be brought 

 near, or an explosion may occur. 



The late sowing of pease is sometimes practised to avoid the weevil ; but this plan ia 

 not approved of, as the crop is small and is then frequently attacked by mildew. 



Seed pease may be held over without injury for two years, and this is a sure remedy 

 against the Pea Weevil ; for the beetles must emerge the first spring, and if the pease are 

 tied up in paper or cotton bags, as they cannot eat through these materials, they will all 

 be dead before the second spring. Weevilled pease should not be used as seed, as they 

 produce, if they grow at all, weak, spindly plants. 



The Pea Moth (Semasia nigricana, Steph., 

 Fig. 44). Por many years pease in all parti 

 of Eastern Canada have been much injured 

 and sometimes rendered quite unfit for the 

 table by the caterpillars of a small moth. The 

 large, late garden pease have suffered most. 

 , Although its injuries were so considerable, it 

 was only last year that the moth was reared 

 and its identity determined. Maggoty pease 

 are well known to the housekeeper ; but it is 

 only at intervals of some years that they are 

 abundant enough to cause much complaint. The caterpillars are whitish and fleshy, with 

 dark heads and Borne dark tubercles on the segments, from each side of which a slender 

 bristle springs. When full-grown they are about ^ inch in length ; they then eat their way 

 out by a small round hole through the pod and enter the ground a short distance, where 

 they spin small oval cocoons in which they pass the winter, and the perfect moths do not 

 appear again until nearly the middle of the following July. Dr. J. Ritzema Bos, in his 

 Agricultural Zoology, says of the same or a closely allied European species : " The moths 

 fly about in large numbers around the pea blossoms, always a short time after sunset. 

 The females lay one, two, or at most three, eggs on a very young pod. In fourteen days 

 the caterpillar is hatched, bores into the pod, and attacks the pease. The pease attacked 

 are covered, while in the pod, with the coarse-grained excrement of the caterpillar and 

 are often united, two or three together, by a web." The perfect moth is a modest-col- 

 oured but pretty species, J inch long when the wings are closed, mouse-coloured, bronzed 



