The Life of the Weevil 



middle of June; and I have in the garden a 

 row of early haricots, black Belgian haricots, 

 sown for cooking-purposes. Though it 

 mean sacrificing the precious vegetable, let 

 us loose the terrible destroyer on the mass of 

 verdure. The development of the plant is 

 at just the right stage, if I may go by what 

 the Pea-weevil has already shown me : there 

 are plenty of flowers and also of pods, still 

 green and of all sizes. 



I put two or three handfuls of my Mail- 

 lanne haricots in a plate and place the swarm- 

 ing mass full in the sunlight on the edge of 

 my bed of beans. I can imagine what will 

 happen. The insects which are free and 

 those which the stimulus of the sun will soon 

 set free will take to their wings. Finding 

 the fostering plant close by, they will stop 

 and take possession of it. I shall see them 

 exploring the pods and flowers and I shall 

 not have long to wait before I witness the 

 laying. That is how the Pea-Weevil would 

 act under similar conditions. 



Well, no : to my confusion, matters do not 

 fall out as I foresaw. For a few minutes 

 the insects bustle about in the sunlight, open- 

 ing and closing their wing-cases to ease the 

 280 



