﻿THE GKANARY WEEVIL , 3 



ECONOMIC HISTORY 



The granary weevil was well known as a pest in stored grain long 

 before its description by Linne (44) in 1758, and numerous references 

 to it are found in the publications of earlier writers. Remains of 

 this weevil are said (23) to have been found in a vial in an ancient 

 Gallo-Roman cemetery and also in a Marovingian tomb. Plautus 

 (52, pp. 251-252), writing about 196 B. C, speaks of a curculio in 

 stored grain which was presumably this species, and there seems to 

 be little doubt that the curculio of Pliny and the Romans was this 

 weevil. Von Schwenckfeld [61, p. 527) in 1603, Rango {5J^) in 1665, 

 Commodus {10) in 1668, and Van Leeuwenhoek (Ji.2) in 1695 all 

 referred to this weevil in their writings. Redi {56) published a figure 

 of it in 1668. Since its description by Linne, innumerable accounts 

 of the weevil have appeared. 



The writers have over 300 references to the granary weevil. 

 Natm'ally many merely pass on information previously published; 

 siu-prisingly few contain real contributions to our knowledge. Only 

 one paper, that by Strachov-Koltchin {65) , contains a decided con- 

 tribution to om* knowledge of the various stages of the life cycle, 

 as viewed from a modern standpoint. Although the work of this 

 Russian was published in 1915, a translation^ was not available 

 for the writers until 1923; hence, the data hereinafter presented 

 were secured uninfluenced by those of the work in Russia. Only 

 a few of the more important papers, from an American standpoint, 

 can be mentioned. 



Duhamel du Monceau {24) published a short account of the gran- 

 ary weevil in 1761 and gave directions for combating the weevils 

 and preserving the grain. In 1775 De Geer {31, pp. 239-240) 

 stated that the weevils were commonly known as calandres. The 

 same common name was used by Van Leeuwenlioek about a hundred 

 years before, so it is probably of rather ancient origin. lii 1790 

 Ohvier {48, pp. 44^-444) published a lengthy account that has served 

 as a basis for a majority of the articles on the granary weevil up to 

 recent times. He described the weevil and its habits and reported 

 numerous experiments for its control. He came to the conclusion 

 (amusing in these days) that fumigations only resulted in imparting 

 a bad odor to the grain witliout seriously inconveniencing the weevils. 

 He found that a temperature of from 167° to 190° F. would kill all 

 stages of tlie insect but liad a tendency to damage the wheat. He 

 observed tJiat when a j)ilc of infested wheat was stirred up, the weevils 

 crawled away in tJieir endeavors to escape, and this suggested to 

 him tlic following metliod for dcslroying them: ''In tlic early si)ring 

 before any eggs liave be(ui laid, several small ])iles of wJieat should 

 be formed near tJic large j)ile. TJk; large j)ile sJiould tlien be stirred 

 and tlie weevils will leave the large pile and on encountering the 

 small piles will enter them to seek shelter. TJic small i:)iles should 

 ihcn be treated with boiling water to kill the weevils. 



Latreille (//J, pp. 54-56), in 1801, gave an extended account of the 

 weevil, noting, among other things, that the period from egg to 

 adult was about 40 days, and thai one pair of weevils were <'aj)ablo 

 of having 6,045 d(!sc(vndants in a single s(!ason. He also noted tJiat 



> A translation of tliis :irt icir; hy Htrachov-Eoltcblu i.s on fllo in tbo Library of tbe Bureau of Entomology, 

 United Stat<a Dtijartiueiil of Agriculture 



