The Old Weevils 



class them among the obtuse, among 

 creatures deprived of industry. These 

 surmises will not be greatly belied. 



Though the Weevil be but little glorified 

 by his talents, this is no reason for despising 

 him. As we learn from the lacustrian 

 schists, he was in the van of the insects with 

 the armoured wing-cases; he was long stages 

 ahead of those which were working out new 

 forms within the limits of the possible. He 

 speaks to us of primitive shapes, sometimes 

 so quaint; he is in his own little world what 

 the bird with the toothed mandibles and the 

 sauri'an with the horned eyebrows are in a 

 higher wo'rld. 



In ever-thriving legions, he has come down 

 to us without changing his characteristics. 

 He is to-day as he was in the youth of the 

 continents: the pictures on the chalky slates 

 proclaim the fact aloud. Under any such 

 picture I would venture to write the name 

 of the genus, sometimes even of the species. 



Permanence of instinct must go with 

 permanence of form. By consulting the 

 modern Weevil we shall therefore obtain a 

 chapter closely approximate to the biology of 

 his predecessors at the time when Provence 



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