LEAF-ROLLERS 195 



but, the instant after, he renews his attempts, which are 

 usually crowned with success. There is no end to it ! 



The pairing continues in this manner for a month : it 

 does not cease until the ovaries are exhausted. Then, 

 mutually worn out, having nothing more to do on the 

 trunk of the oak, husband and wife separate, languish for 

 a few days and die. 



What conclusion are we to draw from this extraordinary 

 persistency in the Cerambyx, the Rhynchites and many 

 others ? Simply this : our truths are but provisional ; 

 assailed by the truths of to-morrow, they become en- 

 tangled with so many contradictory facts that the last 

 word of knowledge is doubt. 



In the spring, while the leaves of the poplar are being 

 worked into scrolls, another Rhynchites, she also gor- 

 geously attired, makes cigars of the leaves of the vine. 

 She is a little stouter, of a metallic gold-green turning 

 to blue. Were she but larger, the splendid Vine Weevil 

 would occupy a very respectable place among the gems of 

 entomology. 



To attract our eyes, she has something better than 

 the brilliancy of her appearance : she has her industry, 

 which makes her hated by the vine-grower, so jealous of 

 his property. The peasant knows her ; he even speaks of 

 her by a special name, an honour rarely bestowed in ^the 

 world of the smaller animals. 



The rural vocabulary is rich where plants, but very 

 poor where insects are concerned. A couple of dozen 

 words, inextricably confused owing to their general 

 character, represent the whole of entomological nomen- 

 clature in the Provencal idiom, which becomes so expres- 

 sive and so fertile the moment it has to do with any 

 sort of vegetation, sometimes even with a poor blade of 



