70 
• *« 
may live six months or more if abundantly supplied with food, 
several generations commonly coexist in badly infested grain. 
Such grain is unfit for human consumption, and as it can not be 
separated from that which is uninjured, it is often a total loss. 
Treatment by heat, and fumigation with carbon bisulfid, are 
the standard methods of destruction. 
The species is widely distributed in the United States, but is 
more common southward. 
The Rice-weevil 
(Calandra oryza LinnJ 
The beetle of this species (Fig. n) differs from the granary 
weevil in being slightly smaller and of a duller brown, and by 
having on the wing-covers four more or less distinct reddish spots, 
two at the front angles and two near the tips. It is, moreover, able 
to fly. It varies in color, from light brown to black, and its thorax 
Fig. 11. The Rice-weevil, Calandra oryza, adult. x~ 5 . 
is densely covered with minute circular punctures not arranged in 
longitudinal lines. In its early stages it is so similar to the preceding 
species that a careful technical description is necessary to separate 
them. 
Th is beetle, having the power of flight, may infest the grain 
in the field even before this is fully ripe. A single female may 
produce as many as four hundred eggs, and altho the sexes fre¬ 
quently pair, reproduction sometimes occurs without this prelim¬ 
inary. The grub hatching from the egg is creamy white with a 
brownish head. The pupa is at first white, but turns to brown¬ 
ish as the beetle develops within. It is formed in a definite 
cavity or cell within an infested grain. Development may 
be greatly retarded, or even arrested, by cold weather, the 
insect living on in whatever stage it may have reached. A genera¬ 
tion may develop in three to six weeks, according to temperature. 
The larvae lyiay reach full size in about sixteen days. 
This weevil is especially troublesome southward, where it in¬ 
fests corn in the field and afterwards in the crib. The beetles begin 
