180 INSECTS AT HO.ME. 



We now come to a Beetle which has doubtlessly annoyed 

 many of my readers, especially if they should happen to be, or 

 to have been, schoolboys. When cracking a filbert after the 

 primitive fasliion, it is by no means pleasant to find the shell 

 of the nut yield sooner tlian expected, and the mouth filled 

 with a bitter black powder, instead of the richly-flavoured 

 kernel. There are few things nastier in their way than such a 

 nut, and the fault lies entirely with the Nut Weevil {Balaninus 

 nucum), a figure of which is given on Woodcut XVIII. Fig. 6. 

 This is a very curious Beetle, its beak being as fine as a needle, 

 very long and very much curved, so that the insect, when 

 viewed in profile, looks something like a shoemaker's awl. A 

 much magnified view of the head and beak is given on 

 Woodcut XV*. Fig. a. 



This genus is at once known by the long and slender beak, 

 which is nearly as long as the triangular body. The antennae 

 are set in the middle of the beak. The present species is rather 

 prettily coloured. The general colour is soft-brown, but the 

 elytra have a nearly white mark shaped like the letter U, its 

 outlines being defined by two black bands. The scutellum is 

 white. These colours are produced by the clothing of down 

 •with which the insect is covered, and when the do^vn is rubbed 

 off, the Beetle becomes nearly black. 



The life story of this Beetle is very simple. As soon as the 

 nut blossom has fallen, and the fruit has fairly ' set,' the female 

 Weevil begins her work. She bores a hole into the young and 

 still soft fi'uit, and in the hole she deposits a single egg, re- 

 peating the process until she has disposed of her whole stock 

 of eo-ps. Her business in life is now finished, and she dies. 

 Meanwhile, the eggs are hatched, and the young larvaj begin 

 to feed on the substance of the nut, carefully avoiding a 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 mis- 

 chief is done, there is scarcely any possibility of checking the 



