98 



INSECTS. 



being broken open, disclose the numberless families that in- 

 habit them. The galls or excrescences formed by the plant- 

 lice, are often used in dying. 



No preventive or cure has yet been devised for the ravages 

 of the aphis ; and the multitudinous attacks of the insect, 

 and the smallness of its body, may ever render impossible the 

 application of any remedy in the fields. In gardens, where 

 the space is more limited, and the means more available, 

 decoctions and hquids of noxious ingredients may be thrown 

 upon the plants that are attacked, and somewhat check their 

 progress. 



4. The Weevil is the " Curculio " of entomology, a genus 

 of insects of the order " Coleoptera." The antennae are 

 clavated, and rest upon the snout, which is prominent and 

 horny ; feelers four, filiform ; club solid or inflated. The 

 species of this genus are very numerous, upwards of 600 are 

 now known ; many of them exceeding in brilliancy and lustre 

 all powers of description, and principally distinguished by their 

 colour. 



The larvae of this splendid tribe differ not from those of 

 most other coleopterous insects. They bear a resemblance 

 to oblong soft worms. They are provided anteriorly with 

 six scaly legs, and their head is likewise scaly. But the 

 places where those larvse dwell, and their transformations, 

 afford many singularities. One of the minutest species of 

 " curculio," at first hardly discernible without the aid of a 

 microscope, is the ^' Granarius," or "Weevil," by some 

 called the " Bond." The larvae are much dreaded in grana- 

 ries, as they take up their abode within the grains of wheat. 

 It is very difficult to discover them, as they lie concealed 

 within the grain. There they grow at leisure, enlarging their 

 dwelling-place at the expense of the meal, on which they 

 feed. Corn lofts are often laid waste by these insects, whose 

 numbers are frequently very great, and destroy much corn. 

 When the insect is come to the full size, it remains within 

 the grain, hidden under the empty husk, which subsists alone, 

 and, there transformed, it becomes a " chrysalis ;" nor does it 



