THE PEA- WEEVIL 277 



world. Shall we credit it to the Bruchus ? Did the 

 ingenious insect conceive the undertaking ? Did it think 

 out a plan and work out a scheme of its own devising ? 

 This would be no small triumph for the brain of a 

 weevil. Before coming to a conclusion let us try an 

 experiment. 



I deprive certain occupied peas of their skin, and I 

 dry them with abnormal rapidity, placing them in 

 glass test-tubes. The grubs prosper as well as in the 

 intact peas. At the proper time the preparations for 

 emergence are made. 



If the grub acts on its own inspiration, if it ceases 

 to prolong its boring directly it recognises that the 

 outer coating, auscultated from time to time, is 

 sufficiently thin, what will it do under the conditions 

 of the present test ? Feeling itself at the requisite 

 distance from the surface it will stop boring ; it will 

 respect the outer layer of the bare pea, and will thus 

 obtain the indispensable protecting screen. 



Nothing of the kind occurs. In every case the passage 

 is completely excavated ; the entrance gapes wide 

 open, as large and as carefully executed as though 

 the skin of the pea were in its place. Reasons of 

 security have failed to modify the usual method of 

 work. This open lodging has no defence against the 

 enemy ; but the grub exhibits no anxiety on this score. 



Neither is it thinking of the outer enemy when it 

 bores down to the skin when the pea is intact, and 

 then stops short. It suddenly stops because the 

 mnutritious skin is not to its taste. We ourselves 

 remove the parchment-like skins from a mess of pease- 

 pudding, as from a culinary point of view they are so 



