THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
51
assertion that peas or beans infested by the beetle are directly
injurious to animal life may perhaps be questioned, but on economic
grounds there can be no doubt that Bruchus rufimanus is not a
desirable inhabitant of our county, and it is to be hoped that some
effectual method for its eradication may ere long be devised.
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Ordinary Meeting, Saturday, March 24th, 1888.
The Eighty-seventh Ordinary Meeting was held in the Public Hall, Loughton, at
seven o'clock, Mr. E. A. Fitch, President, in the chair.
The Auditors, Messrs. Walter Crouch and C. Ridley, presented the Treasurer's
Statement of Accounts for 1887, which had been postponed from the Annual
Meeting owing to the absence of Mr. Royle from England. [The accounts are
printed on pages 54, 55.]
The statement of accounts was unanimously adopted, and a very hearty vote of
thanks was passed to Mr. Crouch and Mr. Ridley for their services as Auditors,
the work on this occasion, owing to the Treasurer's absence, having been excep-
tionally heavy, and necessitating several meetings of the auditors.
Mr. E. A. Fitch exhibited the two granary weevils (Calandra granaria, L., and
C. oryzae, L.), and made the following remarks thereon:—At a recent meeting of
the Entomological Society of Fiance, M. Demaison stated that he found debris of
the elytra and thorax of Calandra granaria mixed with vegetable fibres in the
blackish residue contained in a glass vial found in a Gallo-Roman cemetery at
Rheims. He believes that the vial had originally contained grain which had been
almost entirely demolished by the Calandra, and the remains of the destroying
beetles had formed the sediment which he had analysed. He a so stated that this
observation was not altogether new, as a vase (ampoule) found by the Abbe Cochet
in a Merovingian tomb at Envermeu, Seine-Infeneure, contained debris of this
same beetle. Mr. Fitch said that he now regretted he did not examine the black
mould, which was sparingly found on the floors of the closed deneholes in Hang-
man's Wood, for these insect remains ; for, if they had been discovered, it would
have given strong circumstantial evidence of the theory as to the use of these pits
as granaries or corn-stores, provided these insects had been introduced into this
country at so early a period, which certainly seems to be a doubtful point.1 In
reply to a question from Mr. Spurrell, Mr. Fitch added that he thought it quite
possible such insect remains would resist the natural destructive influences which
would disorganise corn and seeds—the chitinous elytra and parts of the thorax,
etc , of beetles were of a very lasting character.
Mr. Fitch also exhibited a series of the moth Hybernia leucophearia, showing
the range of variation from the typical obscurely marked form to the sharply
marked brown and black banded forms (nigricaria of Hubner and Haworth).
1 The explorers in the deneholes made careful examination of any traces of debris which could
be found free from the fallen sand in the interior of the closed chambers, but without any definite
result ; the possibility of finding remains of corn-weevils had not, however, occurred to them, and
such remains might easily have been passed over. We may call attention to Mr. Fitch's paper
on "Granary Weevils'' in the "Entomologist" for February, 1879, and also to Miss E, A.
Ormerod's account of the insects in her "Report of Observations of Injurious Insects" tor 1887
(Simpkin, Marshall & Co.). Both papers contain numerous observations on the "life-histories"
of these pests.—Ed.