The Life of the Weevil 
shaped underneath. This is the larder of 
the Bear Larinus. 
From the bottom of its cell the new-born 
grub dives forthwith into this fleshy mass. 
It cuts into it deep. Unreservedly, respect- 
ing only the walls, it digs itself, in a couple 
of weeks, a recess shaped like a sugar-loaf 
and prolonged until it touches the stalk. 
The canopy of this recess is a dome of florets 
and hairs forced upwards and held in place 
by an adhesive. The artichoke-heart is 
completely emptied; nothing is respected 
save the scaly walls. 
As its isolation led us to expect, the grub 
of the Bear Larinus therefore eats solid 
food. There is, however, nothing to 
prevent it from adding to this diet the milky 
exudations of the sap. 
This fare, in which solid matter predo- 
minates, necessarily involves solid excreta, 
which are unknown in the inmate of the blue 
thistle. What does the hermit of the carline 
thistle do with them, cooped up in a narrow 
cell from which nothing can be shot outside? 
It employs them as the other does its viscous 
drops; it upholsters its cell with them. 
I see it curved into a circle with its mouth 
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