84 DR. HARRIS’S REPORT. April, 
weight. It is not confined to rice, but also attacks maize. I have 
seen stored maize literally alive with them; and should the evil be 
propagated and extended in this section of our country, it will prove 
a serious injury to one of our most valuable staple productions. 
The insect inserts only a single egg in each grain, but, as she. is 
very prolific, one female may produce a numerous progeny. The 
eggs are deposited when the grain begins to swell, and while it is 
yet very tender. ‘The maggot lives securely and unsuspected in 
the centre of the rice ; when it has attained its full size it has formed 
a cavity from which it gnaws a small passage through one end, which 
it stops up with some of the flour or particles of the rice, and then be- 
comes a pupa, and subsequently a perfect insect before leaving its hab- 
itation, which takes place in the spring. This weevil does not, to my 
knowledge, attack rice or maize after it has become dried and is stored 
for consumption. ‘The wheat weevil of this country is unknown to 
me. I havea large species of Calandra which I am informed was 
found in southern maize, and which has continued to be propagated 
in the corn-house where it was first introduced. 
The family of wood-eaters or Xylophages, called also Bostricide, 
includes the notorious Scolytus Pyri, and many other insects which 
feed upon wood. When these abound, they are productive of much 
mischief, particularly in forests, which are often greatly injured by 
them, and the wood rendered unfit for the purposes of art. In the 
year 1780, an insect of this family made its appearance in the pine 
trees of one of the mining districts of Germany. Three years af- 
terwards whole forests had disappeared, and for want of fuel, an end 
was nearly put to the working of the extensive mines in this range of 
country. 
A distinguished British naturalist, in the year 1824, was requested 
to investigate the cause of an alarming decay of the noble elms which 
ornament St. James’ and Hyde Parks. He discovered that they were 
infested by numerous insects belonging to the genus Scolytus, whose 
ravages had loosened the bark of many of the trees, causing it to fall 
off in large flakes, and threatening their total destruction. An abstract 
of the account given by Mr. Macleay, the naturalist just mentioned, 
and some additional information on destructive insects, was published, 
with the signature of Indagator, in the fifth volume of the New Eng- 
