The Old Weevils 



surrounding parts, carried by the rain-water, 

 which warped their joints in crossing such 

 obstacles as twigs and stones. A suit of 

 armour has kept the body unscathed, but the 

 delicate articulations of the members have 

 given way to some extent; and the muddy 

 winding-sheet received the drowned Beetles 

 as the ravages of the journey left them. 



These strangers, coming perhaps from 

 afar, supply us with valuable information. 

 They tell us that, if the shores of the gulf 

 had the Mosquito as chief representative of 

 the Insect class, the woods had the Weevil. 



Apart from the snout-bearing family, the 

 pages of my Apt rock show me scarcely any- 

 thing else, especially In the order of the 

 Beetles. Where are the other terrestrial 

 groups, the Carabus,^ the Dung-beetle, ^ the 

 Capricorn,^ whom the wash of the rains, 

 indifferent as to its harvest, would have 

 brought to the lake even as it did the 



1 Or Ground-beetle. Cf. The Gloiv-ivorm and Other 

 Beetles, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander 

 Teixeira de Mattos: chap. xiii. — Translator's Note. 



2 Cf. The Sacred Beetle and Others, by J. Henri Fabre, 

 translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: passim. — 

 Translator's Note. 



■' Cf. The Gloiu-'vjorm and Other Beetles: chap. viii. — 

 Translator's Note. 



17 



