Next day the surgeon having seen Latreille again in his prison, was obliged to confess to him that in his friend's opinion this Coleopteron had never been described. Latreille knew by this answer that Bory de Saint Vincent was an adept. As they gave the prisoner neither pen nor paper, he said to his messenger, "I see plainly that M. Bory de Saint Vincent must know my name. You tell him that I am the Abbé Latreille, and that I am going to die at Guyana, before having published my 'Examen des Genres de Fabricius.'"
Bory, on receiving this piece of news, took active steps, and obtained leave for Latreille to come out of his prison, as a convalescent, his uncle Dayclas and his father being bail for him, and pledging themselves formally to deliver up the prisoner the moment they were summoned to do so by the authorities. The vessel which was to have conducted Latreille to exile, or rather to death, was getting ready whilst these steps were being taken, and while Bory and Dayclas were obtaining leave for him to come out of prison. This was quite providential, for it foundered in sight of Cordova, and the sailors alone were able to save themselves. A little time afterwards his friends managed to have his name scratched out from the list of exiles. It is thus that the Necrobia ruficollis was the saving of Latreille.
The tribe of weevils is even much more numerous than that of the Elateridæ and the Buprestidæ. One may know them by their head prolonged into a snout or trunk, by their rudimentary mouth, and by their elbowed antennæ. About twenty thousand species are said to exist. They feed on vegetables. Their larvæ are soft, whitish worms, without legs, with very small heads, and live in the interior of the stalks or seeds of plants, often occasioning enormous damage. They are one of the plagues of agriculture. Each of our dry vegetables, each variety of our cereals, has in this immense family its particular enemy.
First are the Bruchi. The Pea Weevil (Bruchus pisi, [Fig. 556]), which is brown with white spots, comes out of the pea at the end of the summer. The female lays her eggs on peas which are ripe, and still standing, in which the larva scoops out a habitation, and then makes its exit by a circular hole ([Fig. 557]). It remains at rest all the winter, and is not hatched till towards the following spring. The Bean Weevil (Bruchus rufimanus) marks each bean with many black spots. The vetch has also its special Bruchus. The Wheat Weevil (Calandra granaria), of a darkish brown, lays its eggs on the grains, of which the larvæ then eat the interior. A host of ways of getting rid of the weevil have been proposed. The best means is to store corn properly, and to keep the heap well aired. Let us mention further, the Clover Weevil, belonging to the genus Apion, the Weevil of the Rape (Ceutorhynchus brassicæ), the Turnip Weevil, &c., &c.
| Fig. 556.—Pea Weevil (Bruchus pisi), magnified. | Fig. 557.—Pea pierced by the larva. |
All vegetables, the vine, fruit trees, the ash, pines, &c., are eaten by some weevil or other. As an example we give a figure of the spotted Pissodes pini, which, as the figure shows, takes the precaution of cutting half through the young stems and the stalks of the buds of the pine, "so as," says M. Maurice Girard, [128] "that the sap flows only with difficulty into the withered organ, and cannot suffocate the young larvæ."
Fig. 558.—Pissodes pini.