68 



INSECTS 



that worm or grub ever got into it. If the grub is bred 

 to maturity it will develop into a snout beetle with a 

 very slender brown beak, from one half to three quarters 

 of an inch in length or even longer. With this long 

 snout the parent punctures the forming burr of the 

 chestnut or husk of the other nuts, and into the very 

 centre it runs its minute channel. It then turns, places 

 an egg into the mouth of the opening so made and 

 again turning, slowly and gradually forces the egg into 

 place with the beak. The rapidly growing plant tissue 

 effaces all trace of this puncture, and there we have 



FIG. 27. A nut- weevil: Balaninus sp.: a, from above; b, from side; c, larva. 



our embyro grub already in place, almost before there 

 is any differentiation between shell and kernel. It is 

 interesting to note in this connection how carefully 

 nature guards against the extinction of any of her 

 creatures by a season of adverse conditions. A species 

 dependent upon the hickory-nut for instance might, 

 in case of a total failure of that crop for some one year, 

 become locally exterminated if all specimens followed 

 the same routine. But were we to put 100 grubs into 

 confinement in fall, when nuts are ripe, and permit 

 them to go underground to pupate, we would probably 

 get not over sixty adults the spring following; and if 



