412 
Observations on the various Insects 
These larvae var)' somewhat in colour; those I examined in July, 
1841, were fleshy and yellow, sparingly clothed with hairs; they had 6 
pectoral black feet, 8 small abdominal and 2 anal ones scarcely visible ; 
the head was black and shining, the first thoracic segment had a brown 
band with a spot of the same colour at the base of the leg; most of the 
following segments had 8 brown dots, each producing a fine hair (fig. 
16, greatly magnified). 
The cavities in the pods were filled with excrementitious pellets 
(fig. 14, i), and the peas were full ripe, indeed those in some pods 
were changing colour and hard. Only one maggot was found in 
each, and later in July others from the peas buried themselves 
the instant they were put upon some earth ; the head and thoracic 
segment of these were brown, not black, and they were stouter 
than the earlier ones, it is therefore probable that they had 
changed their skins, and at the same time I observed one from 
another sample of a more slender form, which had the head and 
thorax intensely black. In August some peas, although not old, 
were very much eaten ; a portion of the maggots had black, 
but most of them brown heads. I put these into a breeding-cage, 
and others into a garden-pot in which a pea was growing, and 
tied infested pods to the plant, but this plan failed also. During 
the present year I have not met with any peas thus affected, to 
repeat my experiments; but I hope it Avill not be long before this 
interesting inquiry is satisfactorily answered. There can be no 
doubt that the author of the mischief is a moth, which deposits its 
eggs about May, I expect, either in the flowers or upon the 
young pod. Some persons have supposed they were the offspring 
of the Weevils, and many more of a beetle called Bruchus, which 
infests ripe peas, and of which we shall have occasion to speak 
shortly. 
Humble-bees. 
It is a well-established fact that bees are exceedingly service- 
able in rendering flowers prolific ; but it is not so generally known 
that many are greatly injured by them, and few farmers are pro- 
bably aware that Humble-bees in some seasons deprive them, it 
is believed, of a very large proportion of their crop of beans, by 
puncturing the base of the flowers and rendering the incipient 
pod entirely or partially abortive. Many garden flowers are simi- 
larly attacked by the bees, as larkspurs, azaleas, fuchsias, salvias, 
snap-dragons, &c. In all probability the peas in the fields do 
not escape, and in the neighbourhood of Manchester crops of 
scarlet-beans have been almost destroyed by them.* The cause 
of the Humble-bees thus damaging the crops of beans and 
flowers arises possibly from some unusually large females, for in- 
* Mr. W. Charlton, in the Gardener's Chron., vol. i. p. 59G. 
