The Life of the Weevil 



support, that is to say, its head anchored to 

 the snowy cushion, it brings its hinder end 

 a little nearer; it coils up, hunches its back 

 and gradually turns itself into a ball. 

 Though not yet perceptible, the ampulla is 

 being prepared. The siccative has taken 

 effect; the original gumminess has been trans- 

 formed into a sort of skin, flexible enough at 

 this moment to be distended by the pressure 

 of the back. When its capacity is large 

 enough, the grub will become unglued, throw 

 off its envelope and find itself at liberty in a 

 spacious enclosure. 



I should much like to see this peeling, but 

 things happen so slowly as to drive one to 

 despair. Let us go to bed. What I have 

 seen is enough to enable me to guess the little 

 that remains to be seen. 



Next day, when the pale dawn gives me 

 sufficient light, I hasten to my two larva. 

 The bladder is completed. It is a graceful 

 ovoid of the finest gold-beater's-skin, adher- 

 ing at no point to the insect inside. It has 

 taken some twenty hours to manufacture. It 

 has still to be strengthened with a lining. 

 The transparency of the wall enables us to 

 follow the operation. 



324 



