The Iris-Weevil 



to a serious thinning, nevertheless produce 

 excessive families without taking into account 

 the resources at their disposal. 



For lack of room on the seed-capsule 

 of the iris, of the ten guests in one shell four 

 or five at most will survive. As for the 

 disappearance of the rest, we need not seek 

 the cause in the massacring of rivals, though 

 the struggle for existence is fruitful in such 

 crimes. The Weevil's grub is too pacific a 

 creature to wring the neck of those which get 

 in its way. I prefer the explanation which I 

 gave in the case of the Pea-weevil. The 

 late-comers, finding the best places taken, 

 allow themselves to die without striving to 

 dislodge the others. For those first installed, 

 a plentiful board and life; for those which 

 lag behind, famine and death. 



In August the adults begin to appear 

 outside the seed-pods of the iris. The larva 

 has not the talent which the Pea-weevil's 

 grub possesses: it does not, by patient 

 nibbling, make any sort of preparation for 

 the exodus. It is the perfect insect itself 

 that contrives the exit-way, which consists of 

 a round hole bored through the tough husk 

 of the seed and the thick wall of the fruit. 

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