No. L] 



FURTHER NOTES ON INSECT PESTS. 



BY 



E. C. COTES, 



Assistant in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. 



1.— FURTHER NOTES ON THE WHEAT AND RICE 



WEEVIL K 



From inquiries made in the early part of 1888, there appeared to be a 

 Will isolation preserve somewhat widespread idea that, although wheat is 

 wheat from weevils? apparently free from weevil when it leaves the 



fields and village granaries, yet, that it will invariably develop weevil 

 whenever it is stored so as to be exposed to the air, quite independently 

 of any further contamination by weevils. 



This idea may be accounted for by the fact that, after the eggs are 

 laid, a certain period elapses before auy thing is seen of the resulting wee- 

 vils, and consequently that grain, stored in a perfectly new and clean 

 godown, may develop weevil owing to its having been already conta- 

 minated when it was put there, though to all outward appearance it was 

 perfectly clean. It appeared, however, of importance to settle the question 

 definitely, for it is evident that, while, on the one hand, isolating and 

 disinfecting store-houses, to get rid of the weevil, will be of no use what- 

 ever if the eggs are already laid in the wheat when it leaves the fields ; on 

 the other hand, if the weevil is a purely store-house pest, the isolating and 

 disinfecting of the store-houses seems to be the most rational method of 

 dealing with it. 



With a view therefore of settling the question, the Directors of Land 

 Records and Agriculture in the North- Western Provinces and Punjab 

 sent down, last hot weather, to the Museum, a series of half maund sam- 

 ples of wheat, and besides these the writer obtained a few small samples, 

 which were rubbed out by hand from the ear, in his presence, at the ex_ 

 perimental Farm at Cawnpore. These samples were distributed to differ- 

 ent places where there were thought to be no weevils, and exposed to the 

 air, throughout the whole of the rains, in order to ascertain to what 



1 For a general account of this insect (Calandra oryzce) see No. I of "Notes on 

 Economic Entomology, 1888." 



