294 SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD 



exploring the pods and the glass with equal zeal. 

 Finally one and all perish without touching the food 

 provided. 



The conclusion to be drawn from these facts is 

 obvious : the young and tender haricot is not the proper 

 diet. Unlike the Bruchus pisi, the female of the haricot- 

 weevil refuses to trust her family to beans that are not 

 hardened by age and desiccation ; she refused to settle 

 on my bean-patch because the food she required was 

 not to be found there. What does she require ? Evidently 

 the mature, dry, hard haricot, which falls to earth with 

 the sound of a small pebble. I hasten to satisfy her. I 

 place in the bottles some very mature, horny pods, 

 thoroughly desiccated by exposure to the sun. This time 

 the family prospers, the grubs perforate the dry shell, 

 reach the beans, penetrate them, and henceforth all goes 

 well. 



To judge by appearances, then, the weevil invades 

 the granary. The beans are left standing in the fields 

 until both plants and pods, shrivelled by the sun, are com- 

 pletely desiccated. The process of beating the pods to 

 loosen and separate the beans is thus greatly facilitated. 

 It is then that the weevil, finding matters to suit her, com- 

 mences to lay her eggs. By storing his crop a little late 

 the peasant stores the pest as well. 



But the weevil more especially attacks the haricot when 

 warehoused. Like the Calander-beetle, which nibbles 

 the wheat in our granaries but despises the cereal while 

 still on the stalk, it abhors the bean while tender, and 

 prefers to establish itself in the peace and darkness of the 

 storehouse. It is a formidable enemy to the merchant 

 rather than to the peasant. 



