LEGUMINOUS PLANTS.— THE PEA. 



59 



Fig. 8. 



PEA BEETLE. 



over the rows of the pease : the insects might 

 become fixed to the cloth, and might be easily 

 destroyed." 



Besides these there is a small beetle, Bruchus 

 pin, L., fig. 8, which 

 deposits its egg within 

 the pea, which serves 

 the grub for food, and 

 is thus destroyed. It 

 abounds most in dry 

 seasons, and for it there 

 seems no great chance of 

 a remedy. It is, how- 

 ever, not very injurious 

 to us in its attacks. 



The description given 

 by Mr Curtis, in the 

 " Journal of the English 

 Agricultural Society," 

 vol. vii. p. 408, of this 

 insect is good :— " They 

 pair in summer, whilst 

 the pease are in flower, and producing pods ; the 

 females then deposit an egg in almost every pea 

 that has almost just formed. From the outside 

 of these peas, when arrived at maturity, thoy 

 do not appear damaged ; but, on opening them, 

 one generally finds a very small larva, which, if 

 left to repose, remains there aU the winter and 

 part of the following slimmer, consuming by 

 degrees all the internal substance of the pea, so 

 that in the spring the skin only remains ; after 

 which it is transformed into an insect, with 

 scaly wing-cases, which pierces a hole in the skin 

 of the pea, from whence it comes forth and re- 

 sorts to the fields sowed with that pulse, in order 

 to deposit its eggs in the new pods." 



The American mode of destroying the pea 

 bug, Bruchus pin, is thus stated in "Hovey's 

 Magazine of Horticulture ;" — " Immediately after 

 gathering the seed, it is subjected to the action 

 ^j^ Q of boiling water for 



^' ■ one minute ; by this 



means the grubs, or 

 larvse, which at this 

 time are just below 

 the integuments of 

 the pea, are de- 

 stroyed without in- 

 jury to the vitality 

 of the seed." 



Another species, 

 Bruchus granwrius, 

 fig. 9, is often found 

 in seed-rooms, in 

 seed-peas ; and the holes in the pea and hean 



from which 



GRAIN BEETLE. 



Fig. 10. 



WHITH-BHOULDKRED WOOL-MOTH. 



it issues after 

 its transfor- 

 mation, are 

 frequently 

 occupied by 

 the caterpil- 

 lar of the 

 white -shoul- 

 dered wool- 

 moth, Tinea 

 aarcitella, fig. 

 10, the well- 



known domestic pest, which lays its eggs on all 

 manner of woollen stuffs, to the great annoyance 

 of every thrifty housewife. They are often found 

 in the seeds of pease and beans, and, in company 

 with the Bruchus granwrius, and the larvse of a 

 species of saw-fly, work sad destruction in the 

 stock. 



The Bruchus granarius is thus described in 

 the " Cottage Gardener," vol. iii. p. 13 :— " These 

 holes in the peas and beans are made by this 

 beetle, which is produced from a grub or cater- 

 pillar, which has eaten away the vital parts of 

 the seed; and when it has passed through the 

 chrysalis state, and given birth to this beetle, 

 the latter makes the hole in order to escape 

 into the open air, there to perpetrate more mis- 

 chief upon the growing crops. The body of the 

 beetle is a dull brown, but the elytrse, or wing- 

 covers, are black, dotted with white, but scarcely 

 perceptibly so, unless magnified, as in our draw- 

 ing. Naturally it is the size of the smaller figure, 

 and is scarcely two lines long. The anteunaj 

 are eleven — jointed, black, and thinnest near 

 the head, where they are also tinged with red. 

 The head droops, the eyes are prominent, the 

 fore-legs are rusty coloured. The female pierces 

 through the pod of the pea or bean whilst very 

 young, and often deposits an egg in each seed." 

 This insect may be destroyed by the American 

 mode of dipping the seed in boiling water, as 

 noticed above. 



The pupae of the fly Phytomyza nigricomis, 

 the black-horned leaf-miner, fig. 11, feed on the 



Fig. 11. 



BLACK-HORNED LEAF-MINER. 



parenchyma of the leaf, causing minute brown 

 spots in it. The only mode of riddance ap- 

 pears to us to be picking off the infected leaves 

 and burning them, to prevent the further breed- 

 ing of the insect. The cross lines show the 

 natural size of the insect. 



The next serious enemies to the pea are mice 

 and rats. As preventives, rubbing the pease 

 with powdered resin, placing over them in the 

 drills chopped furze, dusting them with lime, 

 sowing charcoal dust along with them, have all 

 been tried with more or less benefit. No plan 

 is, however, so effective as catching the vermin 

 in traps. Poison is dangerous, and seldom so 

 carefully concealed but that some poor bird or 

 other falls a victim to it. The best traps are the 

 cage trap, baited with toasted cheese or broiled 

 bacon ; the next best, the old figure four trap, 

 which has been used for this purpose above two 

 centuries); or the suspension trap, the most 

 simple of any. It is constructed by soaking a 

 few peas in warm water, and when they have 



