46 INJURIOUS AND USEFUL INSECTS 



produce soft, white, footless grubs, with hard brown heads, 

 which feed upon roots from August till the following April. 

 Then they bury themselves deeper in the soil, and turn to 

 pupEe, emerging as beetles about a fortnight later. T^he full- 

 grown beetle is about half-an-inch long, and of the colour 

 of garden mould. The snout is rather short for a weevil, 

 but quite evident. The wing-covers are united, and cannot 

 be extended ; there is no trace of wings, and the beetle is 

 totally incapable of flight. The wing-covers are granulated, 



and roughened also by small 

 scales. The beetles only feed 

 at night, and hide themselves 

 by day. 



The peculiarities of this beetle 

 are very marked. We should be 

 glad to know : — (i) why it has 

 lost its wings ; (2) why its head is 

 drawn out into a snout ; (3) why 

 its feelers are elbowed ; (4) how 

 the larva manages without legs. 

 In reply to question i, we may 

 remark that insects which are 

 indiscriminate feeders are often 

 wingless, more particularly the 

 females. One chief purpose of 

 the winged state is to provide for 

 the transport of the eggs to fresh 

 localities ; if the store of food is 

 ample and close at hand, wings 

 may often be dispensed with. 2. 

 The long snout is particularly 

 serviceable to weevils, which have to pass their jaws into small 

 crevices or holes, such as holes made for the purpose in a hard 

 fruit or seed. We might suspect that the object of drilling the 

 hole was to feed upon the contents ; it is much more common 

 to pass an egg in, and thus make provision for the nourish- 

 ment of the larva. 3. The bending of the feeler at an angle 

 seems to facilitate the exploration by the sensitive tip of the 

 surface to be bored. 4. The larva has its food ready to hand, 

 and need not move from the place until it is ready to pupate. 

 Under such circumstances feet are superfluous. Just in the 



-Giirdcn-weevil. X 4. 



