BEAN AND PEA WEEVILS. 
by- 
Henry Tryon. 
(Read on 9th July, 1894). 
Amongst the insects ordinarily known as weevils is a group 
Composed of stoutly built beetles which have the snout, so 
conspicuous an object in the common grain weevil, scarcely if 
at all developed. These weevils, of which upwards of 400 
different species have been described, and which are technically 
esignated the Bruchidie, feed and undergo their transformations 
wi m t le pods and fruit capsules of various plants, the beans, 
peas, pulses, and leguminosje generally being specially affected 
by them, though they also occur in the fruits of the Hibiscus of 
the Ipomoea, &c., being especially destructive to the seeds which 
ese organs contain. As a rule the members of each species 
confine their attention to the seeds of a single kind of plant, but 
some on the other hand have a fairly extensive dietary. 
Mr. G. Masters, in his well-knowm Catalogue of Australian 
Coleoptera published in 1886, includes but a smgle species of 
uc lus erein. There is evidence, however, forthcoming to 
prove that the family Bruchidie is by no means so scantily 
represente here, and of those members occurring at Brisbane 
eie aie at least three — each of extreme economic 
importance—whieh now have an Australian habitat assigned 
to them for the first time. These, it may be, however, remarked, 
are all introduced insects, and two, it is feared, have come to 
stay, and are really established in the colony. 
ni f 1 eevil. First there is the bean weevil, Bruchus 
Ob ectus, bay or as it is better known Bruchus fabie, of Fitch, 
Kiley, and other writers. This is an ashy brown coloured 
lenS from 13/lOOth to 15/lOOth of an inch in 
gth, with slight indications of alternating whitish and dusky 
lines on its wing-covers, and the feelers or antenme parti-coloured 
