284 SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD 



beggarly lentil, are eagerly exploited ; whilst the haricot, 

 so tempting both as to size and flavour, remains un- 

 touched. It is incomprehensible. Why should the 

 Bruchus, which without hesitation passes from the 

 excellent to the indifferent, and from the indifferent 

 to the excellent, disdain this particularly toothsome 

 seed ? It leaves the forest vetch for the pea, and the 

 pea for the broad bean, as pleased with the small as with 

 the large, yet the temptations of the haricot bean leave 

 it indifferent. Why ? 



Apparently because the haricot is unknown to it. 

 The other leguminous plants, whether native or of 

 Oriental origin, have been familiar to it for centuries ; it 

 has tested their virtues year by year, and, confiding in 

 the lessons of the past, it bases its forethought for the 

 future upon ancient custom. The haricot is avoided as 

 a newcomer, whose merits it has not yet learned. 



The insect emphatically informs us that with us the 

 haricot is of recent date. It has come to us from a 

 distant country : and assuredly from the New World. 

 Every edible vegetable attracts its consumers. If it had 

 originated in the Old World the haricot would have had 

 its licensed consumers, as have the pea, the lentil, and the 

 broad bean. The smallest leguminous seed, if barely 

 bigger than a pin's head, nourishes its weevil ; a dwarf 

 which patiently nibbles it and excavates a dwelling ; but 

 the plump, delicious haricot is spared. 



This astonishing immunity can have only one explana- 

 tion : like the potato and the maize-plant, the haricot is 

 a gift of the New World. It arrived in Europe without 

 the company of the insect which exploits it in its native 

 country ; it has found in our fields another world of 



