The Vine-Weevil 



will soon arrive. It foresees the annoyance 

 which the market-gardener would cause it; 

 and it goes below, far from the natal plant. 



I have reared a dozen in a jar half full 

 of sand. Some have established themselves 

 right against the wall, which enables me to 

 obtain a vague idea of how things happen 

 in the underground cell. The builder is bent 

 into a bow which now and again closes and 

 forms a circle. I then seem to see it collect- 

 ing, with the tips of its mandibles, as the 

 Larini do, a sticky drop which forms at its 

 hinder end. With this it soaks the sandy 

 wall and smears the glass, on which the stuff 

 hardens in cloudy streaks, white and pale- 

 yellow. 



On the whole, the appearance of the 

 cement employed and the little that I can 

 see of the grub's proceedings incline me to 

 believe that the Brachycerus strengthening 

 its cabin uses the same method as the Larinus 

 building its thatched hut. The Brachycerus 

 also knows the whimsical secret of turning 

 the intestine into a factory of hydraulic 

 cement. The sandy agglomerate thus 

 obtained forms a fairly solid shell, in which 

 the insect, which reaches the adult stage in 



171 



