186 



as well as in the border, such as Sedums, Saxifragas, 

 the Trollius, Auriculas, and Primroses, eating round 

 the tops of the roots and detaching them from the 

 the crown. 



1 



1. The Weevil. 2,3. Maggots, 4. The Pupa. The straight lines show 

 the natural length of the Weevil and Pupa. 



Curculio picipes is a most destructive insect in the 

 peachery as well as in the garden. This beetle is very- 

 similar in figure to C. sulcatus, but smaller, and 

 forms, with about twenty other indigenous species, a 

 genus called Otiorhynchus ; they are also nearly alike 

 in sculpture, but vary in tint. C picipes being of a 

 clay colour, the wing-cases more or less clouded with 

 darker-coloured spots, and altogether it so much re- 

 sembles in tone the clods and bark under and be- 

 tween which this insect secretes itself by day, that it 

 is with difficulty detected. In the night these weevils 

 sally forth to feed upon wall-fruit trees and the vines 

 in hothouses, either attacking the stems of the new 

 wood in April, which soon becomes black, or feeding 



