NUT WEEVIL. 141 



fairly ' set,' the female Weevil begins her work. She 

 bores a hole into the young and still soft fruit, and in 

 the hole she deposits a single egg, repeating the process 

 until she has disposed of her whole stock of eggs. 

 Her business in life is now finished, and she dies. 

 Meanwhile, the eggs are hatched, and the young larvae 

 begin to feed on the substance of the nut, carefully 

 avoiding the germ, or vital part, so that, to all external 

 appearances, the nut is perfectly sound and good, 

 though three-quarters of its substance may have been 

 eaten by the larva the little white, fat-bodied grub 

 which we all know so well. As soon as the larva is 

 full-fed, it nibbles a round hole through the shell of 

 the nut, escapes through it and falls to the ground, 

 into which it wriggles its way, and then undergoes its 

 transformations. 



As the grub is concealed within the nut until all 

 the mischief is done, there is scarcely any possibility 

 of checking the evil. It has been suggested that, as 

 the nuts which have been attacked by this Beetle 

 become rather loose on their stems, the branches 

 should be beaten before the nuts are ripe, and all the 

 fruit that falls should be burned. Eight species of 

 this genus are known. The name Balaninus is derived 

 from a Greek word, signifying an acorn, because the 

 acorn as well as the nut is attacked by species of the 

 same genus. 



WE now come to a family of Weevils called 

 Cryptorhynchidae. This name is composed of two 

 Greek words, signifying ' hidden snout/ and is given 

 to this group of Beetles because they have the beak 



