356 THE UNIVERSE. 



seasons which favour their multipHcation they become a 

 fearful pest to the agriculturist. Normandy, which is often 

 ravaged by their devouring legions, has at' different times 

 bego-ed of the government to take some measures that 

 would arrest this invasion. In 1866 these larvse were so 

 abundant in several cantons in the department of Seine- 

 Inferieure that they absolutely annihilated whole fields of 

 beet-root and colza. In one canton alone there was col- 

 lected in a fortnight enough of these Avorms to fill com- 

 pletely a railway-train of thirty-two •carriages. 



Some insects, even those of the smallest size, devastate 

 and devour our crops of all kinds; wherever they appear, 

 no human power can stay their ravages. According to 

 M. Guerin-lNIeneville, they annually consume a large por- 

 tion of the harvests of France, sometimes as much as a 

 fourth, which means that they cause destruction to the 

 value of 500 miUions of francs (£20,000,000). 



Owing to the frightful rapidity Avitli Avliich some insects 

 multiply, the enormous consumption which they occasion, 

 notwithstanding their minute size, demonstrates the un- 

 fortunate exactness of these figures. An experimenter, 

 having inclosed a dozen male and a dozen female weevils 

 in a box of Avheat, found that these Coleoptera, which are 

 scarcely three millimetres long (about the tenth of an inch), 

 had at the close of six months brought forth an innumer- 

 able progeny, and had with their assistance eaten fifteen 

 kilogrammes (thirty-three pounds avoirdupois) of the grain 

 in Avhich they Avere inclosed. It has accordingly been 

 calculated that this httle Aveevi^ single-handed, devours 



1 The one most icjurious to the fanner is the Calandra granaria, or "corn- 

 weevil," wliicli lives in stored grain, whether it be wheat, barley, oats, maize, or 

 rice. Early in the spring, as soon as the weather is warm enough— for being 

 natives of southern regions they do not like cold— the beetles pair, and as soon 

 as the female is impregnated she buries herself in the heap of corn, makes a 



