504 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



coloured, woody substance, similar to some excrescences made 

 by gall insects {Gynips). 



" Had we been 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 yellow grub coiled up, and feeding on 

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

 grub in its cell, part of the wall of which we had unfortunately 

 broken, we put it in a snudl 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 considerable portion of its nourishment, 

 both from the fact of the ceU 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 remarkable circumstance in the case in qiiestion, 

 was the apparent inability of the grub to construct a fresh cell 

 after the first was injured,— r-proving, we think, beyond a doubt, 

 that it is the pimcture made by the parent insect when the egg 

 is deposited that causes the exudation and subsequent concretion 

 of the juices forming the gall" Although the insect in question 

 succeeded in attaining the perfect state, it would probably be of 

 stunted growth in consequence of the deprivation of food. Such, 

 at all events, is the case with insects of other orders, when their 

 supply of food is at all checked while they are in the larval state. 



There is another weevU, scientifically called Cleomis suleirostris, 

 which is one of the gall-makers. It is one of the largest of the 

 British weevils, being more than half an inch in length, and is 

 very simply clad in grey and black. 



If the reader desires to discover the larva of the beetle he may 

 probably be successful by going to any waste spot where thistles 

 are allowed to grow, and examining them carefully about the 

 stems and roots. Nothing is more common than to find the 

 stems of thistles swollen in parts, and in many cases the root is 



