The Life of the Weevil 



August, remains until the garlic season is at 

 hand. 



This method may well be general among 

 the various Weevils that, in the larval, 

 nymphal or adult state, spend part of the 

 year tucked away in an underground shell. 

 The leaf-rollers, notably the Rhynchites of 

 the poplar and the vine, sparing though they 

 be in the use of their cement, no doubt have 

 a store of it in their intestine, for it would be 

 difficult for them to find anything better. 

 Let us, however, leave a door open to doubt 

 and continue. 



For the first time, at the end of August, 

 four months after the rolling of the cigars, I 

 take the Poplar-weevil in her adult form 

 out of her shell. I disinter her in all her 

 gleaming gold and copper; but the beauty, 

 if I had left her undisturbed, would have 

 slept in her subterranean fortress till the 

 young leaves sprouted on her tree, in April. 



I disinter others, soft and quite white, 

 whose limp wing-cases open to allow the 

 crumpled wings to spread. The most ad- 

 vanced of these pale sleepers boast, by way 

 of a startling contrast, a deep-black rostrum 

 with violet gleams. The Sacred Beetle, in 

 172 



