THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 247 



subject. — A. B. Farn ; 8, Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, 

 January 18, 1871. 



[The beetle is very familiarly known as the " bean weevil" 

 (Bruchus rufinianus). The same complaint, and numerous 

 enquiries, have reached me through the * Field' newspaper ; 

 and, with a view of disposing of them all at once, I published 

 a life-history of the insect in the ' Field' for November 26th, 

 giving figures of the beetle and of the bean. Nevertheless, I 

 am obliged to confess my inability to recommend a remedy, 

 and hesitate to say anything about " washing or dressing," as 

 I know of no experiments in either direction that have proved 

 successful: still I can conscientiously, and most emphatically, 

 caution my readers against the purchase and use of advertised 

 nostrums, — as powders, insect-destroyers, and so forth, — 

 because this is not only a waste of money, but it diverts the 

 attention of the sufferer from those careful investigations 

 which might possibly lead to some beneficial result, just as 

 the republication of the description of a caterpillar, from 

 some authentic source, leads to a reluctance to take the 

 trouble of writing an original description. I have often been 

 reproached with having written original descriptions, when 

 good descriptions had been previously published by Samouelle, 

 Haworth, Stephens, Jermyn, &c., «&:c. I think otherwise: I 

 think that this system of copying, instead of observing, 

 simply perpetuates error, and thrusts poor Truth still farther 

 into the well, where she is said to have taken up her 

 residence. That the injury committed by this Bruchus is 

 increasing year after year, as stated by some of the alarmists, 

 I totally disbelieve. One hundred and twenty years ago, 

 namely in 1750, a statement was published that " a thousand 

 quarters of large beans were so infested, that the meal, after 

 passing through the mill-stones, was apparently alive with 

 beetles, which took wing and flew about the mill by 

 thousands; and there were from three to five insects in 

 many of the beans." It is, perhaps, difficult to see how the 

 beetles escaped the somewhat uncongenial and unpleasant 

 interference with their anatomy, which mill-stones might 

 possibly occasion ; but that is nothing to the purpose. I 

 think that, taking the statement exactly as it stands, it shows 

 first, that Bruchi were as numerous 120 years ago as 

 they are now; and secondly, that the average number, per 



