246 
THE SAVAGE WORLD. 
fers the grain after the farmer has prepared it for storing in his barns. The 
weevil lays its eggs inside of a grain, so that the larvae may eat the substance 
and leave to the farmer the form only. In about six weeks the weevil attains 
maturity, and is ready and anxious to continue the work of his progenitors. 
As a single weevil can in four or five months raise a healthy family of six 
thousand young weevils , his troublesomeness 
to our agricultural interests is easy to realize. 
This insect, as is estimated, destroys three hun¬ 
dred thousand bushels each year of European 
wheat. 
The premature falling of fruit from trees 
is generally due to the larvae of the plum- 
weevil, which destroys apples, pears, plums, 
nectarines, peaches, apricots, cherries and 
quinces. As the fallen fruit contains these 
larvae, it should at once be fed to hogs, or 
otherwise destroyed, instead of being left to 
rot on the ground. Nearly all the several 
species are more or less harmful, though 
they all have their uses in the wonderful economy of nature. 
The Sacred Scarabaeus ( Ateuchus sacer ), vulgarly called tumble-bug , figures 
in the carved monuments of the Egyptians, by whom it was esteemed sacred. 
It is about an inch long, flat in form, dull black in coloring. The Egyptians 
used the scarabceus as a 
symbol of the earth, be¬ 
cause of its activity from 
sunrise to sunset in roll¬ 
ing its ball of booty ; as a 
symbol of the sun, because 
of the raylike projections 
from the head; as a type 
of the warrior; as a symbol 
of fecundity and as em¬ 
blematic of Isis and Osiris. 
The Common May- 
Bug (. Melolontha vulgaris) 
has a pair of sheathed 
wings, reddish-brown 
(though frequently 
sprinkled with a white 
dust) ; the neck covered 
with a black or red plate; 
forelegs adapted to burrow- 
ing, since it makes its nest male, larwe and nymph of may-bug. 
half a foot under ground. 
Three months are required before the egg releases a small grub, which 
continues a predatory existence for about three years, gradually increasing 
in size until it becomes the red-headed white maggot usually found in newly- 
dug earth. It provides itself with new clothing every year, and at the end of 
CORN weevil, natural size and mag¬ 
nified. 
