The Life of the Weevil 



experts will not help me much. I do not ask 

 the insect, "what are you called?" but "what 

 are you able to do?" 



The anonymous parasite hatched in my 

 jars has no implement similar to that of the 

 Leucospis, 1 the chief of the Chalcididae; it 

 has no probe which is able to penetrate a 

 wall and place the egg, at some distance, on 

 the food-ration. Her germ, therefore, was 

 laid in the very flanks of the Cionus' larva, 

 before the latter had built its shell. 



The methods of these tiny brigands ap- 

 pointed to the task of thinning out the too 

 numerous are extremely varied. Each guild 

 has its own method, which is always horribly 

 effective. How should so small a creature 

 as the Cionus cumber the earth? No 

 matter: it has to be massacred, to perish in 

 its cradle, a victim of the Chalcid. Like 

 other creatures, the peaceful dwarf must 

 furnish its share of organizable matter, 

 which will be further and further refined as it 

 passes from stomach to stomach. 



Let us recapitulate the habits of the 

 Cionus, very strange habits in an insect of 



1 The Life of the Fly: chaps, ii. and iii. Translator's 

 Note. 



330 



