134 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



had been destroyed by the grub in question so early as Oc- 

 tober.^ — Other predaceous Coleoptera will also attack young 

 corn. This is done by the larva of Zabrus gibhus, both with 

 respect to wheat and barley. In the spring of 1813 not less 

 than twelve German hides {Hufen\ equal to two hundred 

 and thirty English acres, of wheat, were destroyed by it in the 

 canton of Seeburg, near Halle in Germany ; and Germar 

 (who with other members of the Society of Natural History, 

 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 years, 

 thus injurious, but, what one would not have expected, the 

 perfect beetle itself attacks the grain, both of wheat and barley, 

 when in the ear, clambering up the stems at night in vast 

 numbers to get at it. The Rev. G. T. Kudd, when residing 

 at Kimpton near Andover, Hants, where this insect abounds, 

 not only saw it, as did his brother, gnaw off the tip of the 

 husk from the end of a grain of barley, and then gradually 

 draw the milky grain out of its sheath, consuming it as it 

 came forth, till the whole grain had disappeared, and repeating 

 the operation till seven or eight grains had been eaten, but 

 was fully satisfied, on killing and dissecting it, that it had fed 

 on the juicy immature grain.^ Along with the larvse of this 

 insect were found, in the proportion of about one fourth, those 

 of another beetle (^Melolontha ruficornis), which seemed to 

 contribute to the mischief.^ Other beetles, generally sup- 

 posed to be carnivorous, as Amara communis, trivialis, &c., 

 are also stated by M. Zimmermann to feed on wheat. ^ 



The caterpillars of a moth (^Agrotis segetum) occasionally 

 devastate large tracts of wheat and rye by eating the roots, 

 stem, and leaves, in Northern Germany, Prussia, Poland, and 



1 Linn. Trans, ix. 156—161. Ent. Mag. ii. 182. 



3 Germar's Mag. der Ent. i. 1 — 10. Mr. Stephens, in his Illustrations of 

 British Entomology ( No. I. p. 4. ) very judiciously asks, " May not these her- 

 bivorous larvee have been the principal cause of the mischief to the wheat, while 

 those of the Zabrus contributed rather to lessen their numbers than to destroy 

 the corn?" But this query does not account for their being found, when in the 

 perfect state, attacking the ear. I have seen cognate beetles devouring the seeds 

 of umbelliferous plants. 



4 Silbermann, Rev. Ent. ii. 201. 



