242 



INSE(y TRANSFORMATIONS. 



ing to learn that by means of turpentine, in large 

 closes, she was at length cured. 



The grub of the nut weevil (Balanmus JYucum, 

 Germar) might, perhaps, by rare accident, get into 

 the stomach, either of man or of the quadrupeds 

 which feed on nuts; but as it is by no means so 

 tenacious of life as the grub of the churchyard beetle 

 (Blaps morfisciga) above described, it is unlikely 

 that it would produce any considerable disorder. 

 The weevil in question, like the rest of its congeners, 

 is furnished with an instrument for depositing its 

 eggs considerably different from those of the ichneu- 

 mons and saw-flies. For this purpose the weevil 

 makes use of its long horny beak {Rostrum) to drill 

 a hole in filberts and hazel nuts, while in their young 

 and soft state, about the beginning of August. The 

 mother weevil may then be seen eagerly running 

 over the bushes, and it would appear that she always 

 rejects the nuts in which one of her neighbours may 

 have previously laid an egg; at least we never find 

 two grubs in the same nut. The egg, which is thus 

 thrust into the young nut, is of a brown colour, and 

 is hatched in about a fortnight, the g-rub feeding on 

 the interior of the shell as well as the soft pulp, till 

 the one becomes too hard and the other too dry to be 

 nutritive. It is remarkable that, during this period, 

 he takes care not to injure the kernel, but permits it 

 to ripen before he attacks it. Had he done this pre- 

 maturely, he would have ultimately been starved, as 

 he has not the power of perforating another nut 

 when the iirst is consumed. It is said also that he 

 is very careful to preserve the original hole made by 

 the mother, by gnawing around its inner edges, in 

 order to facilitate his exit,* which he effects when the 



* Bingley, Animal Biography, vol. viii, p. 251. 



