The Elephant Weevil 
fruit is not already occupied. It is a rich 
larder, certainly; nevertheless, there is not 
enough for two. Never indeed have I found 
two larve in the same acorn. One only, 
always one only, digests the generous morsel 
and converts it into pale-green flour before 
leaving it and descending to the ground. 
Of the seed-lobe bread, at most an insig- 
nificant crumb remains. The rule is that 
each grub has its loaf, each consumer its 
ration consisting of one acorn. 
Before trusting the egg to the acorn, there- 
fore, it is important to examine it, to 
ascertain if it already has an occupant. 
Now this occupant, if any, is at the bottom 
of a crypt, at the base of the acorn, under 
the cover of a cup bristling with scales. 
Nothing could be more secret than this 
hiding-place. No eye would suspect the 
presence of a recluse if the surface of the 
acorn did not bear the mark of a tiny 
puncture. 
This just visible mark is my guide. Its 
appearance tells me that the fruit is inhabited 
or that it has at least been prepared for the 
reception of the egg; its absence assures me 
IoI 
