(area 2124 acres), which is identical with the township, in 1871 was 25,030, and in 1881 it was 24,506. In 1811 the population was only 5372. Until 1885 the parliamentary borough had an area of 11,340 acres, with a population in 1871 of 116,809 and in 1881 of 124,437. West Bromwich, formerly included in it, has been erected into a separate borough, leaving in Wednesbury an area which in 1881 had a population of 68,142.
At Wednesbury (Wodensborough), Ethelfleda, widow of Ethelred of Mercia, in 916 constructed a castle. The place is not mentioned in Domesday, but appears to have belonged to the barony of Dudley. After the Conquest it became a demesne of the crown, and it was bestowed by Henry II. on the Heronvilles. It first received parliamentary representation in 1867.
WEEVER. The weevers (Trachinus) are small marine fishes which are common on the coasts of Europe, and which have attained notoriety from the painful and sometimes dangerous wounds they are able to inflict upon those who incautiously handle them. They belong to a family of spiny-rayed fishes (Trachinidæ), and are distinguished by a long low body with two dorsal fins, the anterior of which is composed of six or seven spines only, the posterior being long and many-rayed; their anal resembles in form and composition the second dorsal fin. The ventral fins are placed in advance of the pectorals, and consist of a spine and five rays. The caudal fin has the hind margin not excised. The body is covered with very small scales, sunk in and firmly adherent to the skin, but the upper surface of the head is bony, without integument. The head, like the body, is compressed, with the eyes of moderate size and placed on the side of the head; the mouth is wide, oblique, and armed with bands of very small teeth.
Several species of weevers are known, but two only occur on the British coasts, viz., the Greater Weever (Trachinus draco) and the Lesser Weever (T. vipera); the former is frequently found of a length of 12 inches, and possesses some thirty rays in the second dorsal fin, whilst the latter grows only to about half that length, and has about ten rays less in the dorsal. The coloration of both is plain, bnt the short first dorsal fin is always of a deep black colour. The weevers are bottom fish, burying and hiding them selves in the sand or between shingle,—the lesser species living close inshore and the greater preferring deeper water, and being found sometimes floating on the surface at a distance of several miles from the shore. Although weevers, especially the lesser, are in the habit of burying themselves in the sand, and are abundant in some localities much resorted to by bathers, accidents from stepping upon them are much more rare than from incautiously handling them after capture. They probably make their escape on perceiving the approach of a person. The wounds are inflicted by the dorsal and opercular spines, are very painful, and sometimes cause violent local inflammation. In the absence of any special poison organ it is most probable that the mucous secretion in the vicinity of the spines has poisonous properties. The spines are deeply grooved, the poisonous fluid which is lodged in the grooves being thus introduced into the punctured wound.
WEEVIL, a very old Anglo-Saxon term, now commonly applied to the members of a group of Coleoptera termed the Rhyncophora (see vol. vi. p. 133). This group is characterized by the prolongation of the head into a rostrum or proboscis, at the end of which the mouth, with its appendages, is placed. The antennæ are short, usually elbowed, and often end in a club-shaped swelling. The basal portion of the antennæ frequently lies in a depression at the side of the rostrum, and this gives the antennæ the appearance of emerging half-way along the rostrum. The mouth appendages are small; the mandibles, however, are stout. The palps are very short and conical as a rule. The body is usually small; in shape it varies very much. The elytra are very hard, and in some cases fused with one another, rendering flight impossible. The larvæ are white, fleshy, apodal grubs, with a series of tubercles along each side of the body; the head is round, and bears strong jaws, and sometimes rudimentary ocelli. They are exclusively phytophagous. The Rhyncophora embrace three families,—(1) the Curculionidæ, or true weevils, (2) the Brenthidæ, and (3) the Bruchidæ.
The Curculionidæ form one of the largest families amongst the Coleoptera, the number of species described exceeding 10,000, arranged in 1150 genera. The antennæ are elbowed, and clavate, with the basal portion inserted in a groove. The third tarsal joint is generally bilobed. Over 400 species exist in Great Britain, few of which exceed half an inch in length. The genera Phyllobius and Polydrosus include some of the most beautiful insects found in Britain,—their brilliancy, like that of the Lepidoptera, being due to the presence of microscopic scales. The diamond beetle of South America, Entimus imperialis, is another singularly beautiful weevil; its colour is black, studded with spangles of golden green. The immense family of the Curculionidæ includes members which differ greatly from one another in size, colour, and appearance; even the rostrum, the most striking common characteristic, varies greatly. The form of the body is very various: some are rounded or oval, others elongated, almost linear; some are covered with warty protuberances, whilst others are smooth and shining, often with a metallic lustre.
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One of the commonest members of this family in Great Britain is the Nut Weevil, Balaninus nucum. It is of a brownish colour, varied with yellow, the legs reddish. Its rostrum is unusually long, being five-sixths of the body length in the female, and slightly shorter in the male. The antennæ are 7-jointed. The first three joints are much longer than thick; the four following are shorter, and the seventh not longer than thick. The larva is very common in hazel nuts and filberts. When the nuts are about half-grown, the female bores, with its rostrum, a minute hole in the still comparatively soft nut shell, and deposits an egg within the nut. The egg is said to be pushed in by means of the long rostrum. As the nut grows the slight puncture becomes almost obliterated, so that it is unnoticed by all but the most observant eye. The larva is a thick white grub with a brownish head, bearing fleshy tubercles along its side. It feeds upon the substance of the nut. The nuts which are infested by this insect are usually the first to fall to the ground; the larva then bores a round hole through the nut shell, by means of its jaws, and creeps out. It hides itself in the ground during the winter, and in the spring it passes into the pupa stage, from which it emerges about August as the full-grown insect. A nearly allied form, Balaninus glandium, attacks both hazel nuts and acorns.
In an unobtrusive way weevils do immense harm to vegetation. This is effected not so much by their numbers and their powers of consumption, as amongst caterpillars, but by their habits of attacking the essential parts of a plant, and causing by their injuries the death of the plant affected. They destroy the young buds, shoots, and fruits, and attack the young plants in their most delicate organs. Many of them devour seed, as the Corn Weevils, Calandra granaria (see Wheat) and C. oryzæ, and in this way vegetation is severely injured, and its spread seriously checked. Others cause much damage in forests, by boring under the bark and through the wood of trees, whilst some even burrow in the tissue of the leaves.
The Brenthidæ are by some authorities included in the family Curculionidæ. They include some 275 species, and are almost exclusively tropical. Their antennæ are 11-jointed, not elbowed. The rostrum is straight and very long. The shape of the body is very long and narrow, the first and second abdominal segment being very long. Allied to these is the sub-family Attclabides.
The Bruchidæ form a somewhat larger family than the foregoing, containing over 400 species. The antennæ are straight, and inserted upon the head just in front of the eyes; they are 11-jointed, and serrated or toothed in the inside. The rostrum is short. Bruchus pisi causes considerable damage to pease; during the spring the beetle lays its eggs in the young pea, which is devoured by the larva which hatches out in it.
