The Life of the Weevil 



clogged in a sticky mess. This needs a spoon 

 to remove it, not a gouge. At all events, the 

 exit is always made at some point of the 

 floor thoroughly cleaned by the mother, 

 where there is neither gum nor fleshy pulp 

 to hamper the proper working of the tool. 



What is happening at the same time with 

 the gummy sloes? Nothing whatever. I 

 wait a month: nothing yet. I wait two, 

 three, four months: nothing, still nothing. 

 Not a grub comes out of my prepared sloes. 

 At last, in December, I decide to see what 

 has been going on inside. I crack the stones 

 whose air-holes I have blocked with gum. 



Most of them contain a dead maggot, 

 which has dried up while quite young. Some 

 hide a live larva, well developed, but lacking 

 in strength. You can see that the creature 

 has suffered not from want of food, for the 

 kernel is almost entirely consumed, but from 

 another unsatisfied need. Lastly, a small 

 number show me a live grub and an exit-hole 

 made in the regular manner. These lucky 

 ones, immured by the gum perhaps when they 

 were already full-grown, had the strength to 

 perforate the casket; but, finding on top of 

 the wood the hateful varnish, which is the 



