INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 167 



account in the Limiean Transactions, taking it for the 

 wire-worm; but, as Mr. Marsham observed, not correctly; 

 it being probably the larva of some coleopterous insect, 

 perhaps of one of the numerous tribe of Staphylinidce 

 which are not universally carnivorous. This animal was 

 discovered to infest the wheat in its earliest stage of growth 

 after vegetation had commenced; and there was reason 

 to believe that it began even with the grain itself. It eats 

 into the young plant about an inch below the surface, de- 

 vouring the central part; and thus, vegetation being stop- 

 ped, it dies. Out of fifty acres sown with this grain in 1 802, 

 ten had been destroyed by the grub in question so early 

 as October 3 . — Other predaceous Coleoptera will also at- 

 tack young corn. This is done by the larva of Carabus 

 gibbus, F. (C. gibbosus, E. B., Harp aim, Latr.), particu- 

 larly with respect to wheat. In the spring of*1813 not 

 less than twelve German hides (Hufen), equal to two hun- 

 dred and thirty English acres, were destroyed by it in the 

 canton of Seeburg, near Halle in Germany; and Germar 

 (who with other members of the Society of Natural His- 

 tory, at that place, ascertained the fact,) suspects that it 

 was the same insect, described by Cooti, an Italian author, 

 which caused great destruction in Upper Italy in 1776. — 

 Not only is the larva, which probably lives in that state 

 three } r ears, thus injurious; but, what one would not have 

 expected, the perfect beetle itself attacks the grain when 

 in the ear, clambering up the stems at night in vast num- 

 bers to get at it. — Along with the larvae of this insect were 

 found, in the proportion of about one-fourth, those of 

 another beetle (Melolontha nificornis, F.), which seemed 

 to contribute to the mischief b . 



a Linn. Trans, ix, 156.61. b (jfermar's Mag. derEnt. i. 1-10. 



