COLEOPTEKA OR BEETLES. 139 



■will observe, sitting on the edge of the leaf, a clay -coloured 

 beetle : this insect is one of the Pea and Eean Weevils, either 

 Sitones Uneatus or S. crinitus. These beetles are about one- 

 fifth of an inch in length, the former having three dark 

 longitudinal strips on the thorax, the latter 

 somewhat larger and clay-coloured aU over. LJ, 



Like the other two weevils described, they -^ 



hibernate as adults ; but they are also found '• 



in the larval state. The hibemators come 

 out on the wing the first warm days in spring, 

 and feed off clover, lucern, and trifolium, 

 as well as peas and beans. It is especially 

 the last that they damage by eating away 

 the leaves, taking large notches out of them. 

 These sitones are most timid : directly they 

 hear, or feel, the least movement, they fall ^sltm^^'iinmtv^r^t. 

 to the ground on their backs, and remain as (^teheal) °''«°'*"^ 

 if dead. Mimicking death is a common 

 habit amongst weevils. The larvse live in summer at the roots 

 of peas and beans, and often do much damage to them. They 

 mature before the end of summer, the adults from them laying 

 their eggs upon the roots of clover, where the white, footless, 

 curved grubs remain feeding throughout the winter. The adults 

 which hibernate pass the winter in all manner of places. They 

 have been noticed in numbers in barley stubble : I have seen 

 them in great quantities in corn-stacks, and in a variety of other 

 places. Field peas often suffer very severely, as well as garden 

 produce. 



Prevention and Remedies. - — The destruction of all winter 

 shelter is essential. When field peas are attacked, a good dress- 

 ing of soot and then a light rolling does much good : the soot 

 annoys them, and when lying on their backs on the ground, a 

 light roller destroys a great number, besides breaking down 

 the ground, and so doing away with the shelter they get in 

 inclement weather from the rough clods of eartL The larvae 



