The Life of the Weevil 



blue thistle possessed the secret of asphalt 

 long before man did. Better still: to put 

 its method into practice with a rapidity and 

 economy unknown to the Babylonian con- 

 tractors, it had and still has its own well of 

 bitumen. 



What can this viscous substance be? As 

 I have explained, it appears in opal drops at 

 the waste-pipe of the intestine. Becoming 

 hard and resinous on contact with the air, it 

 turns a tawny red, so much so that the inside 

 of the cell looks at first as though coated 

 with quince-jelly. The final hue is a dull- 

 brown, against which pale specks of mixed 

 ligneous refuse stand out sharply. 



The first idea that occurs to one's mind 

 is that the Weevil's glue must be some special 

 secretion, not unlike silk, but emerging from 

 the opposite pole. Can there be actually 

 glands secreting a viscous fluid in the grub's 

 hinder part? I open a larva which is busily 

 building. Things are not as I imagined: 

 there is no glandular apparatus attached to 

 the lower end of the digestive canal. 



Nor is there anything to be seen in the 

 ventricle. Only the Malpighian tubes, which 

 are rather large and four in number, reveal, 

 42 



