The Life of the Weevil 



grub attacks the base of the acorn first, the 

 reply would appear to be as follows: the 

 egg is laid at the entrance of the tunnel, on 

 the surface; and the grub, crawling along 

 the gallery dug by the mother, of its own 

 accord reaches the point where its infant's- 

 food exists. 



At first, before I possessed adequate 

 particulars, this explanation was also my 

 own; but the mistake was soon dispelled. I 

 pluck the acorn when the mother withdraws 

 after for an instant applying the tip of her 

 abdomen to the orifice of the tunnel which 

 her rostrum has just bored. The egg, so it 

 seems, must be there, at the entrance, close 

 to the surface. . . . But not at all : it is not 

 there; it is at the other end of the passage! 

 If I dared to take the liberty, I should say 

 that it has gone down it as a stone falls to 

 the bottom of a well. 



We must hasten to abandon this silly 

 notion: the tunnel is infinitely narrow and 

 blocked with shavings, so that any such 

 descent would be impossible. Besides, 

 according to the direction of the stalk, which 

 may be either downwards or upwards, a fall 



