The Life of the Weevil 
plants its instrument perpendicularly; it 
patiently veers and veers again. 
The work is arduous, very arduous, for 
the nut is selected when nearly ripe, to pro- 
vide the grub with more savoury and more 
abundant food; it is thick and tough, much 
more so than the rind of an acorn. If the 
Acorn-weevil takes half a day to bore her 
passage, how long must the Nut-weevil’s task 
be, how patient her persistence! Perhaps 
her rod is specially hardened. We can tem- 
per our drills till they wear away granite; no 
doubt the Weevil, in the same way, provides 
her boring-tool with a bit of triple hardness. 
Quickly or slowly, the augur sinks into 
the base of the nut, where the tissues are 
softer and milkier; it enters obliquely, ma- 
king a fairly long journey, to prepare for the 
grub a column of semolina suited to its first 
needs. Whether boring into nuts or into 
acorns, the Balanini make the same delicate 
preparations for the benefit of their offspring. 
At length there comes the placing of the 
egg, right at the bottom of the shaft. Here 
the strange method which we already know 
is repeated. With a hinder rostrum, equal 
in length to the front one and kept hidden 
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