The Life of the Weevil 
‘The carlina’s foster-child cannot live on a 
clear broth, as does the echinops’; for, if 
the drops trickling from a wound were 
sufficient, there would be victuals for several 
here. The blue thistle feeds three or four 
boarders without any loss of solid material 
beyond that resulting from a slight gash. 
Given such coy-toothed feeders, the heart of 
the carline thistle would support quite as 
many. 
It is always, on the contrary, the portion 
of one alone. Thus we already guess that 
the grub of the Bear Larinus does not confine 
itself to lapping up discharges of sap and 
that it likewise feeds upon its artichoke-heart, 
the standing dish. 
The adult also feeds upon it. On the 
cone covered with imbricated folioles it 
makes spacious excavations in which the 
sweet milk of the plant hardens into white 
beads. But these broken victuals, these cut 
cakes off which the Weevil has made her 
meal, are disdained when the egg-laying 
comes into question, in June and July. A 
choice is then made of untouched heads, 
not as yet developed, not yet expanded and 
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