The'colour'is brown mottled letter V. This Beetle may mark much like the is a bold whL

“ T.r -“rt; in search of a mate. , t

A nt state and flies abroad insect h^e be» admirably told r f "o— ■ r • -U mrro-B the snring has considerably important advanced, .sk^ the

depositing tt!= er gg , "ofT^e little bunches of blossom are

apple-buds have bur , Weevil soon finds out these,

readily to be ^"’':t/;a;rrelind, commences her

and, 7“‘®g 77^^ ^fore alluded to, is frm.shed

operations. oV,ort teeth or mandibles : with these

at its extremrty calyx of the future biosshe gnaws a very trunk is plunged m up ■

som, and .dthdrawn, and the hole ex- to her eyes , gcrutiny by the introduction of one of her

amined with caiefu trident. If it seem to reqmre of hei trident. or outer prongs

feelers,

any alteration, the trunk goes to work again, and again the feelers ; at last, being fully satisfied that the work is well accomplished, she turns about, and, standing with the extremity of her abdomen over the hole, thrusts into it her long ovipositor, an instrument composed of a set of tubes retractile one within the other, and deposits a single egg (never more) in the very centre of the future flower. Another examination with her feelers now takes place ; and when she is thoroughly satisfied that all is right, away she flies to perform the same operation again and again, never tiring while she has an egg to lay.

‘The bud continues to grow like the other buds ; the little perforation becomes invisible. By and by the egg bursts, and out comes a little white maggot, with neither legs nor wings. This maggot, directly it is hatched, begins to devour the young and tender stamens ; next to these the style is attacked, and eaten down to the fruit, the upper part of which is quickly consumed : the maggot is then full-fed ; it casts its skin, becomes a chrysalis, and lies perfectly still. Up to this time the blossom has continued healthy, no trace of the enemy bein<. to be discovered mthout ; but when the neighboui-ing bloss'oms are expanding their petaU to the genial breath of spLg, those blbrf closed, and retain the arched, balloon-hke appearance of a bud about to burst. For a few days they preserve their lovely pink colour, and then, by egrees, fade to dingy-brown. In this state they remain until the other apples are well knit; and then the damaged blossoms iL iT ^o^trast, appear very conspicuous. On openblossoms between JuLlH June 10 and 15, the chrysalis will be found to have changed to t I f!’ described, Ihich had It been left to itself, would in a few days way have eaten its

through the weather-beaten case of dried petals and left- H prison-house, flying about to take its pleasure until tL Lu/

The insect also conceals itself under stones sfinVa i

ruaiy. K 2 Inve English species belong to this genus.

We now come to a Beetle which has doubtlessly annoyed if they should happen to be, or many of my readers, especially When cracking a filbert after the to have been, schoolboys. means pleasant to find the shell fashion, it is by no primitive expected, and the mouth filled of the nut yield sooner than powder, instead of the richly-flavoured with a bitter black nastier in their way than sucli a kernel. There are few things lies entirely with the Nut Weevie (Ba^nmus nut, and the fault on oodcut XVIII. big. o. a figure of which is given nucum), its beak being as fine as a needle, This is a very curious Beetle, so that the insect, when very long and very much curved, like a shoemaker s awl. viewed in profile, looks something head and beak is given on mag-nified view of the much Woodcut XV*. Fig. a. , , j by the long and slender bea ,

This genus is at once known body. The antenn® is nearly as long as the triangular which The present species is rather are set in the middle of the beak. colour is ^«ft-brown but the colom-ed. The general prettily like the letter U, its have a nearly white mark shaped elytra is by two black bands. The scuteUum outlines being defined by the clothing of down ^ v^e Thi colours are produced when the down is rubbed . the insect is covered, and Iith which off, the Beetle becomes nearly black. „ i simple. As soon as the life story of this Beetle is very

The has fairly ‘ set,’ the female : has fallen, and the fruit xiufblossom a hole into the young and begins her work. She bores Weevil she deposits a single egg, resoft fruit, and in the hole still of her whole stoc until she has disposed neating the process finished, and she dies business in life is now TeZ Her and the young larvae begin the eggs are hatched,

Meanlhile, avoiding a vi < substance of the nut, carefully

to feed on the is peifec y appearances, the nut

t <50 that to all external

wel . As soon as the la which we all know so

grub

its way, tough and then ft undergoes =L“dMls“to the ground, mis-

“ipes wrthm ™ grub is concealed

Asibe of checki „ there is scarcely any possibility

chief is done,

evil. It has been suggested that, as the nuts which have been

attacked by this Beetle become rather loose on their stems, the

branches should be beaten before the nuts are ripe, and all the

fruit that falls should be burned. Eight species of this genus

are known. The larva of the Nut Weevil is shown on Woodcut

XVIII. Fig. 6, and the pupa at /. The name Balanmus is

Orobites cyaneua. 4. Coeliodes qucrcfts.
Tychiug venustua. 2. Orchestes fagi. b. c. 6. Sitophilua Orchestes, head. Orchestes, hind leg. oryzns. a. Coeliodes, head. <i. Orchestes, antenna.

derived from a Greek word, signifying an acorn, because the acorn US* as well as the nut is attacked by species of the same

rJ , FT f the body is rounded and oval instead of triangular, and the thoraz is g obular. An uefrlv example of this genus, Tychius venuatus is given on Woodcut XIX. Fig. i. These are" all pr“eX

their bodies being thickly clothed with variously coloured scales. The present species is one of the prettiest of them, although its colours are not brilliant. The upper part of the i body is covered with ashen-grey scales, the elytra being striated and punctated, with very narrow and delicate white longitudinal streaks. Beneath, it is pure white. This seems to he I rather a local insect, hut is found plentifully in certain spots, I of which Darenth Wood is one. It frequents plants of the vetch tribe, and has been taken on the broom.

We now come to a strange genus of Weevils, strange in their forms, and strange in their ways. They are all very tiny rarely more than the tenth of an inch in length, and Beetles, much less. The femora of the hind legs are exgenerally ceedingly thick and strong, and the Beetle uses them for leaping, an exercise which it pursues with wonderful agility. this peculiarity, the genus is named Orchestes, a word

From which signifies ‘ leaper.’ One of these Beetles, Ovchestes fo>Q'h which may he translated as ‘ beech-hopper,’ is reprea name sented on Woodcut XIX. Fig. 2, its head is shown at Fig. 6, and its hind leg at Fig. c. Beetles, they are able to do a vast amount

Small as are these much in their perfect as in their larval state. of harm, not so of this genus are long and flat, as is necessary for The larvae They burrow into the leaves of various their mode of Hfe. the upper and under layer of the trees, penetrating between on the ‘ parenchyma,’ a soft green snbstance leaf, and feeding them. Mr. Curtis mentions some observathat lies between made on the habits of the insect which we have tions which he taken as our example ; — informed me that the beech-tiees i

‘In 1832, Lord Farnham Ireland, had for the last three or four on his estate in Cavan, appearance, from the leaves being years suffered, not only in Orchestes fagi, ■ blighted by a species of these partially of July, when they assumed an in June and the beginning general health of the trees appearance, but the

autumnal It appeared that, on the

seemed to be considerably impaired. occupied by the Oi'chestes,

bud opening, it was immediately and to so great an extent that perforated the leaves,

which

scarcely a tree escaped.

‘On June 10, in the previous year, in a ramble through the

New Forest, I observed that the leaves of the trees looked very

brown, and those of the beech were quite blistered. This I at first attributed to the severe frost we had in the morning of May 6, but on examining them I found a larva inclosed in each leaf, which in a short time changed to Orchestes fagi ; so that at the period when Lord Farnham observed it in Ireland, this Beetle seems to have been equally abundant in England.’

Twelve species of this genus are known in England, and most of them are named after the trees which they inhabit. Many more species are described by the older entomologists, but it has now been ascertained that many supposed species are nothing but varieties, our present example having been described under five names. The colour of this species is black, with the exception of a reddish down scattered rather sparingly over the elytra. It is, however, a variable insect, sometimes having the downy clothing green instead of red.

We now come to a family of Weevils called Cryptorhynchids. This name is composed of two Greek words, signifying ‘ hidden snout,’ and is given to this group of the beak bent Beetles because they have downwards, and capable of being received into a groove on the under side of the body. This attitude is assumed when the Beetle is in repose or alarmed. On Woodcut XIX. Fig. 4, IS represented one of these insects, named Coeliodes the head of which is shown at Fig. a. In this genus the hollow in which the beak lies is between the first and middle pairs of legs, and it is on account of this channel that the name Gcehod^s, or ‘ hollowed,’

ese has been given to the genus. are all very Httle, dumpy-bodied, sober-coloured insects, and, when placed under the microscope, they bear a curious resemblance to the apteryx, whose round body and long ciirved beak almost exactly reproduce the form of the Weevif They are generally to be found on nettles, and can be taken with the swe^-net. Owing to the rotundity

ry of their bodies, they are

difficult subjects for the setting board. Moreover in death, the head always bends itself downwards, and the beak tucks jtsdf so into its out injunng groove, that to brtog it out wttS the insect is no easy matter.

Although this species is not a brilliantly-coloured one, it is

very pretty wlien viewed tlirough. a lens, dhe colour is pitchyblack, the head and thorax being thickly granulated. The elytra are striated and punctated, and are variegated by a few whitish patches. The under surface of the body is clothed with white down. As its specific name implies, it is to be found upon the oak.

Our next example of this family is Ovobites cyo/fieus. The genus is known by its globular and polished body, and the short groove on the chest. The insect which is figured is the only British species of its genus, and is by no means common. are good localities for it, and it has been found on Vetches willows and in hedgerows. Its colour is very dark-blue, and it has a curious way of avoiding observation if alarmed. As the reader may see by reference to the illustration, its legs are long in proportion to its body ; yet, it possesses the rather them so tightly under its body, that it looks power of packing like a dry polished seed than an insect, and, in order to more assist the deception, it is instinctively taught to remain perfectly still as long as any sign of danger remains. The generic name Orobites is Gireek, and signifies ‘vetch-eating,’ and the signifies ‘ dark-blue,’ so that both titles specific name cyaneus are perfectly appropriate.

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