NIGHT-FEEDING WEEVILS. 
53 
an inch long, with a scaly head, furnished with sharp curved jaws, 
three pairs of jointed legs, and a pair of long somewhat bristly 
processes at the tail. 
Whether this attack will prove to be one of those which are 
regularly troublesome remains to be seen; peculiar circumstances, as 
of drought or otherwise, may have caused the beetles to attack the 
roots ; but any way, it was well worth observing, as one more instance 
of the Ground Beetles, which were formerly supposed to be almost 
entirely carnivorous, by no means limiting themselves to preying on 
each other, or other insects. Also the gnawings are so peculiar that, 
whether on Mangold or on Potato, of which I have received similarly 
injured specimens, when observed they may lead to an enquiry at 
the earliest dawn of the summer’s day for the cause of the mischief. 
Night-Feeding Weevils. Otiorhynchus sulcatus, Fab.; 
0. picipes, Fab. 
„ Otiorhynchus Niger. 
Otiorhynchus niger (after Taschenberg); maggots and chrysalids of 0. picipes 
(after Curtis); all life-size and greatly magnified. 
The Otiorhynchi are a family of weevils of which some of the 
commonest kinds are remarkable for the enormous quantity of mischief 
they have a capacity of doing, whether (in beetle state) to leaves, 
shoots, or fruit above ground, or (as grubs) to the roots beneath the 
surface. 
These weevils are of the shape figured, with a short stout rostrum 
or proboscis, and may be further known by having no wings; the 
colours run on black, grey, or clay-colour. The grubs are legless and 
fleshy, whitish in colour, with yellow heads, and of the shape figured, 
natural size and magnified. 
