82 APPLE WEEVIL. 



scheme for self-preservation will beat him. Now roll him 

 into a quill or pill-box, and take him home. Place him 

 on a sheet of writing paper ; you will soon see his shape 

 the head is furnished with a trunk, from which, on each 

 side, springs a feeler, bent at right angles forward, so that 

 the trunk altogether looks to be three-pronged, like a tri- 

 dent. The thorax and wing-cases are brown, beautifully 

 mottled; and an oblique line on each, pointing towards 

 the suture or meeting of the wing-cases, is much lighter 

 coloured, and gives the little beetle an appearance of hav- 

 ing a letter V obscurely chalked on its back. Its size al- 

 together is rather less than a hempseed.* 



With the first sunshiny day in March, these weevils 

 leave their winter quarters, crawl up the trunk and along 

 the twigs, perch themselves so as to receive the full benefit 

 of the sun's rays, and plume themselves with their legs 

 and feet all over, trident and all, just in the same manner 

 that a cat washes her face with her paws : they then 

 stretch out one leg at a time, cramped, no doubt, by the 

 long confinement ; they lift up their wing-cases and unfold 

 two large, transparent wings, which, though twice as long 

 as the wing-cases, were neatly folded up and hidden under 

 them, and then, launching themselves into the air, they go 

 roving about the orchards and gardens, their little hearts 

 in an ecstasy of freedom, and love, and happiness. It is 

 not long before each finds a suitable mate ; no relations 

 raise objections ; and the nuptials are consummated. 

 Now I will allow the gentleman weevil to go his way in 

 quest of new loves and conquests ; and in the mean time 

 I will observe the conduct of the lady. 



* This insect is the Anthonomus pomorum of authors : a second species of 

 the same genus infests the pear, and a third the common white-thorn. E. N. 



