172 HOMES WITHOUT HAlfDS. 



there could be no doubt but that the body had not been changed 

 into stone. 



Cylindrical holes of smaU size may be often seen in the bark 

 of oak-trees, from ■which dart certain long-bodied little beetles, 

 with beautifuUy-fringed anteimse, and shaped much like the 

 common skip-jack beetles. These insects belong to the genus 

 Melasis. 



The common Meal- Worm may be placed with the wood-borers, 

 for it is able to gnaw its way through almost any bread that can 

 be made, and, as sailors too well know, feeds upon ship-biscuit, 

 and drills it full of holes. Old sailors can never eat a biscuit 

 without mechanically knocking it on the table, a custom 

 which they have learned on long voyages, serving to shake the 

 " maggots " out of the biscuit. The meal-worm is the larva of a 

 beetle, called Tenebrio molitor, a long-bodied, small-headed insect, 

 with very long, wing-cases, and very slender and rather short 

 antennae. To bird-fanciers it is invaluable, serving to keep in 

 health the nightingale and several other delicate birds, and those 

 who keep vivaria are also indebted to the meal-worm, as affording 

 food to sundry of the lizard tribe. Even the perfect insect will 

 eat the biscuit, and is nearly as voracious as the larva. 



Theee is a genus of weevils called Calandra, which is remark- 

 able for the great diversity of size among its members, some, 

 such as the dreaded grain-weevil of England (Calandra granaria), 

 being very small, and scarcely exceeding the eighth of an inch in 

 length ; and another, the Palm Weevil {Calandra palmarum), 

 being a really large beetle, nearly two inches in length. This in- 

 sect is equally injurious to the sugar-cane and the palm-tree, the 

 larva burrowing into the centre of the plant and eating away its 

 substance. This larva is very large, very fat, and very heavy, 

 and is slightly curved. The natives consider it as one of their 

 greatest delicacies, and have some peculiar fashion of cooking it. 

 They call it by the name of Grugru. 



While I was examining the beautiful collection of insect habi- 

 tations in the British Museum, a gentleman looked on, and 

 presently pointed to a larva, apparently that of some sphinx- 

 moth, and saying that he knew the insect well, and had often 

 eaten it, stating at the same time that it was taken out of a 

 palm-tree. The label attached to the specimen corroborated this 



