114 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 
inhabitants of the warmer regions of Europe, often nourishes in its berries 
the destructive maggot of a fly (Dacus olee); and the caterpillar of a 
little moth (Zinea oleella), which preys upon the kernel of the nucleus, 
occasions them to fall before they are ripe. The larvae of two beetles 
Hylesinus oleiperda and Phloiotribus olee, attack the bark and alburnum of 
the young branches; another beetle, Otiorhynchus meridionalis Schon., 
deyours the young shoots and leaves ; and the sap is injuriously abstracted 
by Coccus olee, and by Psylla olee Fons.', as well as by Thrips physapus, 
which in Tuscany has of late years threatened the olive trees of some 
districts with destruction, by attacking the young leaves and buds.? — 
Every one who eats nuts knows that they are very often inhabited by a 
small white grub ; this is the offspring of a weevil (Balaninus nucum), 
remarkable for its long and slender rostrum, with which it perforates the 
shell when young and soft, and deposits an egg in the orifice. In France 
it sometimes happens, when the chestnuts promise an abundant crop, that 
the fruit falls before it comes to maturity, scarcely any remaining upon the 
trees. The caterpillar of a moth which eats into its interior is the cause of 
this disappointment.’ Of fruits the date has the hardest nucleus ; yet 
an insect of the same tribe with the above, that feeds upon its kernel, is 
armed with jaws sufficiently strong to perforate it, that it may make its 
escape when the time of its change is arrived, and assume the pupa 
between the stone and the flesh. And another moth, the Pyralis brunnea, 
feeds on the pulp of the fruit, and there undergoes its metamorphosis.* 
The date is eaten also by a beetle which Hasselquist calls a Dermestes.? — 
Another foreign fruit, the tamarind, has its stone, which is nearly as hard 
as that of the date, attacked by a weevil of the same genus as the corn-weevil 
of which, in the larva state, sometimes as many as forty are found in a single 
stone. The pomegranate, in the East Indies, has its interior eaten by the 
caterpillar of the hair-streak butterfly (Zhecla Isocrates), of whose economy 
Mr. Westwood has given so interesting an account.” 
In these last-named fruits, however, we have a far slighter interest than 
in another of our imported ones, the orange, of which, in 1841 (including 
lemons), we consumed upwards of 302,000 chests, paying a gross duty of 
63,975/., and which may be regarded as the most valuable of the whole, 
combining a highly intrinsic excellence with a price which brings it within 
the reach of all. It appears, however, from the interesting and important 
facts stated by W. S. MacLeay, Esq., that we might have oranges still 
cheaper, were it not for a little fly (Ceratitis citriperda), which lays its eggs 
in them before their shipment from the Azores ; and the grubs subsequently 
disclosed often so greatly injure them, that the orange merchants calculate 
on losing one third of their average importations, and of course reimburse 
themselves by a proportionate advance of the price to the consumers. ® 
1 M. Boyer de Fonscolombe in Ann, Soc. Unt. de France, ix. 101. 
2 Passerini, Alcuni Notizie, &c. 
5 Reaum. ii. 505. 4 Guérin-Méneville, Revue Zoolog. 1841, p. 246. 
5 Tbid. ii, 507. and Hasselquist’s Travels in the Levant, 428. 
6 Christy in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. i. 7 Tbid, ii. 1. 
8 Zoological Journ. iv. 475. This fly, which Dr. Heineken states is common in 
Madeira, and that he has also hatched it from lemons and peaches (Zool. Journ. v. 
199.), seems to be the same species with Petalophora (Trypeta Wied.), capitata 
Macq. (Dipteres, ii. 454.), so named from the two singular clavate processes between 
the eyes of the male. It may be easily obtained from decaying oranges, on the out- 
side of which the grub assumes the pupa state. 
