50 



purposes of this paper will be equally as well served by- 

 adhering to the former classification). The great bulk of 

 the weevils are included in the latter family, only some 

 three hundred species of Bruchidce being known, about fifty 

 of which inhabit America north of Mexico. They derive 

 their name on account of their nibbling or " biting " pro- 

 pensities. Their depredations are chiefly confined to the 

 various members of the Leguminosce — pod-bearing plants 

 — and are marked among peas, beans and many seeds which 

 among foreign nations and tribes are important articles of 

 food or export. Figure 32 represents the well-known pea 

 weevil (Bruchus pisi),both larva and beetle, magnified and of 

 natural size, and figure 33 the American bean weevil (Bruchus 

 fabce). 



They are small active beetles, short and stout, of which the too-familiar pea-weevil is 

 a good example, and are recognized by the manner in which the head is folded against the 



Fig. 32. 



Fig. 33. 



breast. The eleven-jointed antennse are short and inserted close to the eyes. Some 

 foreign species attain considerable size, one, Australian fruit-eating species being consider- 

 ably larger than our biggest weevil. 



It seems almost superfluous to give any account of our pea-weevil (Bruchus pisi) 

 after the able account of it by Mr. Saunders in the Annual Report for 1879, but as it is 

 typical in structure and habits of this family I shall devote a few lines to it. Appar- 

 ently a native of North America, it long since reached the southern portions of Europe, 

 and is mentioned as having been so numerous in some districts of Prance in 1780 as to 

 have seriously affected the health of the peasants who had partaken freely of the worm- 

 infested peas. Mr. Curtis, in his admirable treatise on Farm Insects, written twenty 

 years ago, expresses the hope that the climate of Great Britain will not suit the economy 

 of this pest, and states that he has frequently found the beetles in imported peas. 



The beetle is nearly oval in shape ; from two to two and one-half lines in length 

 and dull in colour, being black when divested of the dense covering of short hairs with 

 which it is clothed. These hairs are rusty brown above and gray beneath, while the 

 elytra (wing-covers) are marked by several white dots. The weevils pair in early sum- 

 mer when the pea-fields are in bloom, and as soon as the young pods are developed the 

 female deposits her eggs thereon. A few days later the larvae are hatched and eat their 

 way into the nearest pea, in which they live usually until the next spring, when, having 

 undergone all their changes, they come forth ready to attack the new crop. A method 

 recently given by a correspondent of the American Entomologist to destroy the weevils in 

 seed-peas is to immerse the latter for a few minutes before planting in a mixture of kero- 

 sene and water, which is said to effectually destroy the insects without injury to the peas. 

 The following paragraph which appeared in a recent issue of the Daily Globe, contains a 

 valuable suggestion as to the treatment of seed peas : — 



"An entomological occurrence in The Globe office suggests an easy method of anni- 

 hilating the pea weevil — an insect whose ravages are rapidly driving the farmers of some 

 parts of Ontario to abandon pea culture in despair. A note in this column, a few weeks 

 ago, about a new pea pest (not the weevil) brought half a dozen consignments of ' buggy 



