affecting the Corn- Crops. 
473 
the stigma or breathing-hole is situated, and above these is another 
line of brown warts, all thickened and producing hairs ; the seg- 
ments beneath have a similar callous spot at the middle of each, 
with four behind it, excepting the penultimate segment, and the 
anal one is brown and small, furnished with a proleg, and two 
short, pointed, hairy horns composed of three joints : the six pectoral 
legs are jointed and terminated by claws. Fig. 8 ; fig. 9 being 
the animal highly magnified. 
These larvrc, which seem to be closely allied to the preceding 
specimens (figures 5 and 6), bore into the earth, forming some- 
times immense numbers of perpendicular burrows (fig. 10, d), 
which often commence in a curve (e), and extend from a few 
inches to two feet in depth ; and when they are full grown they 
form at the termination of the burrow an oval cavity (fig.y), 
smooth on the inside, in which they change to an exceedingly soft 
and sensitive pupa of a yellowish white colour, with two little 
black eyes ; and as it becomes more matured, the various members 
of the future beetle are distinctly developed. They remain in 
this state only three or four weeks, for the larvae had changed to 
pupae the beginning of June, and at the end of the month and the 
beginning of July the beetles made their appearance. 
So serious was the mischief caused by these insects in the vicinity 
of Halle in Saxony, in 1812, "that the Society of Naturalists in 
that city appointed a committee of its members to examine into 
the case on the spot."* They were first observed in a field of 
wheat which they devastated, and when wheat was again sown 
they destroyed it a second time : they then attacked the rye, and 
atterwards the barley. In the Canton of Seeburg in Halberstadt 
alone, about 30 acres of corn were destroyed by the larvcB, and in 
July the beetles came forth in enormous swarms, crawling by night 
up the straws and eating the grains in the ears,t but concealing 
themselves by day under clods of earth, stones, &c., so that the 
beetles were nearly as mischievous as the larvae ; but it seems pro- 
bable that when the beetles appear in excess the mischief may 
remedy itself, for when they cannot find corn to feed upon, they 
will attack and destroy each other, such at least was the case with 
some confined in a box. 
The larva, however, is the most formidable enemy ; it issues from 
* I am indebted to Kollar and his translator for many of the following 
facts, which had been, however, previously made known by Germar. 
t There are other Carabida which, it is presumed, live upon seeds and 
vegetables. Mr. Ingpen states that a specimen of Poecilm cupreus was 
taken in the act of devouring a common pea {vide Trans. Ent. Soc). I 
frequently find some of the smaller Amaree on rushes, &c. by the sides of 
ditches ; and Curtonotus aulicus, a species nearly allied to Zabrus, is far from 
uncommon on the foliage of thistles. 
