The -Vine-Weevil 
the whole list of insect names in our Pro- 
vencal idiom, expressive and fertile though 
this idiom be when it refers to the vegetable 
world and even, at times, to a sorry weed 
which one would think was known to the 
botanist only. 
The man of the soil is interested above all 
things in the plant, the great foster-mother; 
all else leaves him indifferent. Splendid 
adornment, curious habits, marvels of in- 
stinct: all these make no appeal to him. But 
to touch his vine, to eat other people’s grass: 
what a heinous crime! Quick, a name, a 
badge of infamy, to hang round the male- 
factor’s neck! 
This time the Provencal peasant has taken 
the trouble to invent a special term: he 
calls the cigar-roller the Bécaru. Here the 
scientific name and the rural name are in 
complete agreement. Rhynchites and Bécaru 
are exact equivalents: both allude to the 
insect’s long beak. 
But how much more correct is the vine- 
grower’s term, in its lucid simplicity, than 
the scientific name, set forth in full, with its 
imperative complement relating to the 
species! JI rack my brain in vain to guess 
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