The Life of the Weevil 
insect appears to have finished. It does in 
fact step back, it withdraws its drill, care- 
fully, lest it should bend it. The tool is now 
outside, once more pointing forwards, in a 
straight line. 
This is the moment.... Alas, no! 
Once again I am cheated: my eight hours’ 
watch has led to nothing. The Weevil de- 
camps, abandons the acorn without making 
use of her boring. Yes, I was certainly 
right to distrust observation in the woods. 
Such a period of waiting among the ilexes, 
under the scorching sun, would have been 
an unbearable torture. 
All through October, with the aid of help- 
ers when needful, I remark numerous borings 
not followed by any laying. The operation 
varies greatly in length. Generally it lasts 
a couple of hours; sometimes it takes half 
the day or even more. 
What is the object of these shafts, made 
at such cost of time and labour and very 
often left unstocked? Let us first look for 
the site occupied by the egg and forming the 
grub’s earliest mouthfuls; then perhaps the 
reply will come. 
The inhabited acorns remain on the oak, 
98 
