The Life of the Weevil 
spots where the larva will find food to their 
liking? 
The Pieris 1 goes to the cabbage, in which 
she has no personal interest. The plant, 
compressed into a head, has not yet flowered. 
Besides, its modest yellow blossoms have no 
greater attraction for the Butterfly than an 
infinity of other flowers distributed broad- 
cast. The Vanessa? goes to the nettle, on 
which her caterpillars will feast, but on which 
the adult insect finds nothing to suck. 
When, in the summer gloaming, the Pine 
Cockchafer has long been whirling in the 
nuptial ballet around her favourite tree, she 
refreshes herself after her fatigue by nibbling 
a few pine-needles; then, with impetuous 
flight, she goes in search of some bare, sandy 
tract where the grass-roots lie decaying. 
Here, as often as not, there is no resinous 
aroma, there are no more pine-trees, the 
delight of the plumed beauty; and it is in this 
place, where nothing appeals to her own 
1 The Large White, or Cabbage, Butterfly. Cf. The 
Life of the Caterpillar: chap. xiv—Translator’s Note. 
2A genus of very decorative Butterflies, including such 
well-known species as the Red Admiral, the Painted 
Lady, the Camberwell Beauty, the Tortoiseshell Butter- 
fly and the Peacock Butterfly—Translator’s Note. 
76 
