The Life of the Weevil 



posal, the hairs and remnants of the florets 

 of its thistle. Its cement is used only to 

 plaster and glaze the work. The Cionus' 

 larva, on the other hand, employs nothing 

 but the oozings of its intestine ; consequently 

 the little hut resulting is of incomparable 

 perfection. 



Besides the Spotted Larinus, my notes 

 mention .other Weevils, for instance, the 

 Garlic-Weevil (Brachy cents algirus), whose 

 larvae possess the art of coating their cells 

 with a thin glaze provided by the rump. 

 This intestinal artifice seems, therefore, to be 

 pretty frequently employed by the Weevils 

 that build little chambers in which the met- 

 amorphosis is to take place; but none of 

 them excel in it as does the Cionus. Its 

 task becomes yet more interesting when we 

 consider that, in the same factory, after a 

 very brief interval, three different products 

 are compounded: first a liquid glue, a means 

 of adhesion to the swaying support of the 

 mullein lashed by the winds; then a siccative 

 fluid which transforms the sticky coating 

 into gold-beater's-skin ; and lastly a cement 

 which strengthens the bladder separated 

 from the larva by a sort of moult. What a 

 326 



