The Sloe-Weevil 



shape, but very curious with its narrow ven- 

 tilating-shaft? Above all, how does she 

 manage to make this communicating passage 

 in the soft mass? These are details which 

 we can scarcely hope to detect, so discreetly 

 does the insect work. We must be content 

 to know that the rostrum alone, without the 

 aid of the legs, digs the crater and erects 

 the central cone. 



In the heat of June, less than a week is 

 enough for the hatching. By good fortune, 

 solicited, so far as that goes, by attempts 

 that come near to exhausting my small stock 

 of patience, I witness an interesting sight. 

 I have a new-born grub before my eyes. It 

 has just cast the skin of the egg; it is very 

 busily wriggling in its powdery cup. Why so 

 much excitement? For this reason : to reach 

 the kernel, its ration, the tiny creature has 

 to finish the pit and turn it into an entrance- 

 window. 



A stupendous task for a speck of albumen. 

 But this feeble speck boasts a set of 

 carpenter's tools; its mandibles, a pair of 

 fine chisels, received the necessary temper 

 while their owner was still in the egg. The 

 grub sets to work immediately. By the 

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