422 
Observations on the various Insects 
meadow-sweet {Spirceaulmaria'), Sec* is a most destructive insect 
in our pea and bean fields, the larvae feeding in the seeds and 
sometimes destroying more than half the crop. They are ex- 
ceedingly abundant in some parts of Kent, ^vhere they often 
swarm at the end of May, and are occasionally found as late as 
August; indeed I have just killed one, imported with the Russian 
beans, which has been alive in a box since the end of Septejnber. 
It attempted to fly away in October ; it then became torpid, but 
on warming it by a fire in the middle of November it was as lively 
and active as in the height of summer, and I dare say would have 
lived through the winter. 
It is said that the female beetles select the finest peas to de- 
posit their eggs in, and sometimes they infest crops to such an 
extent that they are eaten up by them, little more than the husk 
being left. The various kinds of beans are equally subject to 
their inroads ; besides the long-pods 1 have alluded to, I have 
had broad Windsor beans sent to me containing these Bruchi, and 
Mr. C. Parsons transmitted me some horse-beans in the beginning 
of August, 1842, which were entirely destroyed by them. Mr. 
F. J. Graham showed me some seed-beans which were inoculated 
by these beetles to a great extent, and some of them were alive 
in the seeds ; yet to any one ignorant of the economy of this pest, 
there would not appear the slightest external indication of their 
operations. I also received from a gentleman residing in Norfolk 
a sample of seed-beans from Russia for winter sowing, a large 
proportion of which was perforated by this Bruchus. 
It has already been intimated that as the beetles generally 
leave the germ uninjured, the vitality of infested seeds is not de- 
stroyed. I doubt, however, if they produce strong healthy plants ; 
and from my own experience I have no doubt, if peas or beans be 
sown containing the Bruchus r/ranarius, that the beetles will 
hatch in the ground, and thus the cultivator will entail ujion him- 
self a succession of diseased pea and bean crops. Now to avoid 
this loss the seed should be examined before sowing, when to an 
experienced eye the presence of these beetles will be discernible, 
where to a common observer they would appear sound and good. 
It has been shown in the history of the foregoing species that the 
maggots, when arrived at their full size, gnaw a circular hole to 
the husk or skin of the seed, whether pea or bean, and even cut 
round the innei surface which covei s the aperture, so that a slight 
j)r('ssure from within will force this lid off: these spots are of a 
different colour to the rest of the seed, generally having a less 
♦ The larvae are also recorded as inhabiting the lentils in France, also 
gesse, beans, and all sorts of vetches. Ency. Method., vol. v. p. 108. 
