GENUS CALANDRA. 101 



Genus CALANDRA. 



' Antenna? geniculated and nine-jointed, inserted near the base of the rostrum : the club 

 is biarticulate ; rostrum elongate, rounded, slightly deflexed and bent ; thorax elon- 

 gate, narrowed in front, depressed, the base and apex truncate ; elytra shorter than 

 the abdomen ; body subdepressed ; legs rather short ; tibiae armed with an acute 

 spur ; tarsi rellexed, the penultimate joint slightly bilobed ' ( Stephens). 



Calandra cranaria (Clairv.). (Plate ii, fig. 1.) 



Color pale ferruginous : head finely punctate ; thorax strongly punctate ; elytra deeply 

 striate and punctate ; legs ferruginous. 



This insect is an European species, but has been introduced here in samples of wheat 

 received from France. Many bottles of sample wheat were entirely destroyed, although 

 perfectly closed so that nothing could get in from without. It is called the Com weevil. 



I suppose this introduction of this insect, which was accompanied with another, the 

 Silvanus surinamensis, is only a single instance of its occurrence in this way. When it was 

 observed that the specimen grain was destroyed by these imported insects, Mr. J. E. Gavit 

 volunteered to describe and illustrate the insects for publication in the Transactions of the 

 Agricultural Society of this State. I am permitted to republish this valuable account, 

 furnished by the gentleman referred to ; as too much publicity cannot be given to a matter 

 so interesting to the wheat-growers of this country. 



Mr. Gavit, in his communication to the Secretary of the Society, states, that < in the 

 specimens of wheat furnished me, I find two beetles : one the true corn weevil of Europe, 

 Calandra granaria (Clairville) ; the other, Silvanus svrinamensis, the weevil most com- 

 monly found infesting the granaries of this State. 



' The former of these received the name of Curculio granarius from Linneus, but is now 

 called Calandra granaria. It is somewhat depressed, and varies in color from a deep pitch 

 to a chesnut tint. The head is semi-globose, produced anteriorly into a longish smooth 

 cylindrical snout, which is shortest and stoutest in the males : it is slightly curved, and 

 sparingly punctured with two lines extending almost from the base of the head to the 

 apex, forming two deep channels before the eyes, where the rostrum is dilated. Eyes black, 

 vertical, ovate, finely granulated and depressed. The antennae are nine-jointed : the basal 

 joint being long, stout and clavate, it forms an angle with the remainder ; the terminal 

 ones forming an oval, conical, little shining club, pubescent at the tip. Thorax twice as 

 broad as the head, oval, a little truncated : the surface is coarsely punctured with oval 

 points. Scutellum minute and oval. Wing-covers exactly equal to the thorax and head, 

 being ovate-truncate, and not covering the apex of the abdomen : there are nine deep 

 punctured channels down each, producing short pale bristles ; and the two raised furrows 

 on each side of the suture have a line of long punctures. The six legs are punctured. 



