The Vine-Weevil 
will soon arrive. It foresees the annoyance 
which the market-gardener would cause it; 
and it goes below, far from the natal plant. 
I have reared a dozen in a jar half full 
of sand. Some have established themselves 
right against the wall, which enables me to 
obtain a vague idea of how things happen 
in the underground cell. The builder is bent 
into a bow which now and again closes and 
forms a circle. I then seem to see it collect- 
ing, with the tips of its mandibles, as the 
Larini do, a sticky drop which forms at its 
hinder end. With this it soaks the sandy 
wall and smears the glass, on which the stuff 
hardens in cloudy streaks, white and pale- 
yellow. 
On the whole, the appearance of the 
cement employed and the little that I can 
see of the grub’s proceedings incline me to 
believe that the Brachycerus strengthening 
its cabin uses the same method as the Larinus 
building its thatched hut. The Brachycerus 
also knows the whimsical secret of turning 
the intestine into a factory of hydraulic 
cement. The sandy agglomerate thus 
obtained forms a fairly solid shell, in which 
the insect, which reaches the adult stage in 
171 
