COLEOPTERA. 507 
taken, and while Bory and Dayclas were obtaining leave for him 
to come out of prison. This was quite providential, for it foundered 
in sight of Cordova, and the sailors alone were able to save them- 
selves. A little time afterwards his friends managed to have his 
name scratched out from the list of exiles. It is thus that the 
Necrobia ruficollis was the saving of Latreille. 
The tribe of weevils is even much more numerous than that of 
the Hlaterid@ and the Buprestide. One may know them by their 
head prolonged into a snout er trunk, by their rudimentary 
mouth, and by their elbowed antenne. There exist about twenty 
thousand species. They feed on vegetables. Their larvae are 
soft, whitish worms, without legs, with -very small heads, and live 
in the interior of the stalks or seeds of plants, often occasioning 
enormous damage. They are one of the plagues of agriculture. 
Each of our dry vegetables, each variety of our cereals, has in 
this immense family its particular enemy. 
First are the Brucht. The Pea Weevil (Bruchus pisi, Fig. 554), 
which is brown with white spots, comes out of the pea, at the 
end of the summer. The female lays her eggs on peas which 
are ripe, and still standing, in which the larva scoops out a habi- 
tation, and then makes its exit by a circular hole (Fig. 455). It 
remains at rest all the winter, and is not hatched till towards the 
following spring. The Bean Weevil (Bruchus rufimanus) marks 
each bean with many black spots. The vetch has also its special 
Bruchus. The Wheat Weevil (Calandra granaria), of a darkish 

Fig. 554.—Pea Weevil (Bruchus pisi), magnified. Fig. 555.—Pea pierced by the larva. 
brown, lays its eggs on the grains, of which the larve then eat 
the interior. A host of ways of getting rid of the weevil have 
been proposed. The best means is to store corn properly, and 
to keep the heap well aired. Let us mention further, the 
Clover Weevil, belonging to the genus Apion, the Weevil of the 
Rape (Ceutorhynchus brassice), the Turnip Weevil, &c., &e. 
