114 Insect Architecture. 



aware of its real nature, we should have put it immediately 

 under a glass or in a box, till the contained insect had developed 

 itself; but instead of this, we opened the ball, where we 

 found a small yellowish grub coiled up, and feeding on the 

 exuding juices of the tree. As we could not replace the 

 grub in its cell, part of the walls of which we had unfortu- 

 nately broken, we put it in a small pasteboard box with a 

 fresh shoot of hawthorn, expecting that it might construct a 

 fresh cell. This, however, it was probably incompetent to 

 perform : it did not at least make the attempt, and neither 

 did it seem to feed on the fresh branch, keeping in preference 

 to the ruins of its former cell. To our great surprise, 

 although it was thus exposed to the air, and deprived of a 



Gall of the Hawthorn Weevil, drawn from specimen, a, Opened to show the grub. 



considerable portion of its nourishment, both from the part 

 of the cell having been broken off, and from the juices of the 

 branch having been dried up, the insect went through its 

 regular changes, and appeared in the form of a small 

 greyish-brown beetle of the weevil family. The most re- 

 markable circumstance in the case in question, was the 

 apparent inability of the grub to construct a fresh cell after 

 the first was injured, proving, we think, beyond a doubt, 

 that it is the puncture made by the parent insect when the 

 egg is deposited that causes the exudation and subsequent 



