The Iris-Weevil 



it comes from an iris of some sort or other. 



And this is not, as one might reasonably 

 suppose, an aberration caused by the tedium 

 of captivity. I have found in the harmas ^ 

 on the tall stalks of the pale Turkey iris, 

 a group of our Weevils feeding together on 

 the green capsules. Whence came they, 

 these pilgrims observed for the first time 

 between my four walls? How did they 

 learn, these colonists from the moist river- 

 banks, that an iris which provided excellent 

 eating was flowering amid the aridities of 

 my acre of pebbles? At any rate they left 

 no part of the young capsules intact. The 

 food discovered suited them very well. It 

 was therefore impossible for me to profit by 

 this windfall in order to ascertain whether 

 the unfamiliar plant would serve for the 

 establishment of the family. 



Apart from the genus /m, are there any 

 other plants, its near botanical relations, 

 whose fruits are accepted? I have vainly 

 tried the trivalvular capsules of the corn-flag 

 {Gladiolus segetum, Gawl.) and the 



1 The enclosed piece of waste land on which the author 

 used to study his insects in the wild state. Cf. The Life 

 of the Fly: chap. i. — Translator's Note. 

 303 



