38 COLEOPTERA. 



These larvae are very destructive to the seeds 

 of leguminous plants, and often do great mis- 

 chief to the fields of peas. The larva passes 

 the winter in the seed, and the perfect insect 

 appears in the spring. In this state their ha- 

 bits are quite altered, they have no longer any 

 taste for peas, the food which formerly sup- 

 ported them is wholly disregarded, and they 

 now derive their nourishment from the flowers 

 of different plants. As soon as that propensity, 

 which leads all animals to seek each other, is 

 satisfied, the Bruchi return to the young pods, 

 just as they are ready to be formed, and gene- 

 rally deposit an egg in the embryo of each pea. 



SPECIFICATION. 



Bruchus Pisi. Br. elytris griseis albo punctatis, 

 podice albo maculis binis nigris. Linn. Syst. 

 Nat. 1. p. 604. Gmel. p. 1734. Fair. Syst. Ent. 

 p. 64. Spec. Ins.l.p.74. Mant. Ins.l.pAl. Geof- 

 frey, Ins. I. p. 267. t. 4f. 9. Degeer, 5. 1. 16. f 3, 4. 

 Panzer, Faun. Ins. Germ.fasc. 66. 1. 11. 

 Inhabits Europe, and is destructive, in the larva state, 

 to beans and peas. 



PI. 13. a. Natural size. b. Magnified, c. A horn. 



