The Life of the Weevil 



plants its instrument perpendicularly; it 

 patiently veers and veers again. 



The work is arduous, very arduous, for 

 the nut rs selected when nearly ripe, to pro- 

 vide the grub with more savoury and more 

 abundant food; it is thick and tough, much 

 more so than the rind of an acorn. If the 

 Acorn-weevil takes half a day to bore her 

 passage, how long must the Nut-weevil's task 

 be, how patient her persistence! Perhaps 

 her rod is specially hardened. We can tem- 

 per our drills till they wear away granite; no 

 doubt the Weevil, in the same way, provides 

 her boring-tool with a bit of triple hardness. 



Quickly or slowly, the augur sinks into 

 the base of the nut, where the tissues are 

 softer and milkier; it enters obliquely, ma- 

 king a fairly long journey, to prepare for the 

 grub a column of semolina suited to its first 

 needs. Whether boring into nuts or into 

 acorns, the Balanini make the same delicate 

 preparations for the benefit of their offspring. 



At length there comes the placing of the 

 egg, right at the bottom of the shaft. Here 

 the strange method which we already know 

 is repeated. With a hinder rostrum, equal 

 in length to the front one and kept hidden 



