320 
TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSFCTS. 
to find a shelter for the egg. One kind attacks the vine and 
the pear tree. The female insect selects a leaf, cuts the stalk 
with her beak almost half through, and then rolls the leaf to- 
gether, and in doing this she is assisted by the male. Having 
made a symmetrical roll, she cuts into and pierces it with 
the beak and lays an egg in the opening, and then she pushes 
in the egg in such a manner that it remains on the inner side 
of the leaf. Five or six eggs are thus introduced, and the leaf 
is rolled up in such a way that it is impossible to discover from 
the outward appearance how the eggs were deposited. 
The Apoderus in the engraving on page 318 is a pretty red 
insect with a black head, and it rolls up the leaves of nut trees. 
The Rynchites in the same engraving has a violet red tint, and 
looks very silky, and it twists up vine leaves. 
The little Apion is scarcely a line in length, lives in its larval 
condition in seeds and grains, and is very injurious. It is a true 
weevil, in spite of its size. 
The Larini frequent the shores of the Mediterranean. They 
are well known by their elytra, which are covered with a sort 
of efflorescence, which imitates spots and cloudy markings. Their 
larvae live in the fleshy part of the receptacle or eye of composite 
flowers. The engraving represents the larva of Larinus maculosns 
in the centre of the receptacle of Echinops ritro . The adults are 
on the ground and on a leaf. 
Very large species of the genus Calandra are found in the 
tropical parts of the globe ; and in Guiana the palm trees are 
more or less riddled by one. The adult Calandra palmarum is a 
large velvety black beetle, and is nearly two inches in length ; its 
larva is a great worm-shaped creature, and lives in the pith of 
the trunk of the trees, boring large cavities in the wood itself. 
When full-grown it forms a cocoon with the woody fibres which 
surround the pith, and undergoes its transformations therein. 
This species and another, Calandra sacchari , are equally de- 
structive to the sugar-cane in the West Indies. The natives of 
Guiana and Surinam consider these larvae as great dainties, and 
eat them boiled. 
Calandra gronaria y or the Corn Weevil, is notorious for the 
ravages it commits upon the corn in granaries. It is a slender 
