Of the Weevil. 
Of the weevil, or corn-beetle. 
IIS little infedt is fomewhat bigger than a large 
A loufe of the fcarab kind. It does much harm to 
many forts of grain, by eating into them, and devouring 
all their fubftance. As many people are unacquainted with 
the weevil, I have exhibited a picture of it, in fig. 148. 
of the full fize it appears of to the naked eye. It has 
two jointed horns, which are reprefented as they appear 
when viewed through a microfcope, at E, H, G, fig. 149, 
Its trunk at E D B, and its forceps or fharp teeth D, 
with which it gnaws its entrance into the heart of the 
grain, either for food, or to depofite its eggs. Between 
the forceps at D, appears a kind of fucker, with which 
it licks up the flower or duft of the grain. 
If fome of them are kept in glafs tubes, prepared as 
before defcribed, that the air may have a free paffage into 
them, with a few grains of wheat, their copulation may 
be difcovered, and alfo their manner of generation, which 
is thus performed f . The female perforates a grain of 
wheat, and therein depofites a Angle oblong eeg or two 
at the moft, and this fhe does to five or fix grains every 
day, for feveral days together; thefe eggs, which are 
not above the fize of a grain of fand, in about feven 
days produce an odd fort of white maggot, which 
wriggles its body very much, but is icarce able to move 
from place to place; the maggot turns into an aurelia, 
which in about fourteen days comes out a perfedf 
Weevil. 
f Leeuwenhoek’s Exp. of 6 Ang. to the Royal Society, 
