The Life of the Weevil 
August, remains until the garlic season is at 
hand. 
This method may well be general among 
the various Weevils that, in the larval, 
nymphal or adult state, spend part of the 
year tucked away in an underground shell. 
The leaf-rollers, notably the Rhynchites of 
the poplar and the vine, sparing though they 
be in the use of their cement, no doubt have 
a store of it in their intestine, for it would be 
dificult for them to find anything better. 
Let us, however, leave a door open to doubt 
and continue. 
For the first time, at the end of August, 
four months after the rolling of the cigars, I 
take the Poplar-weevil in her adult form 
out of her shell. I disinter her in all her 
gleaming gold and copper; but the beauty, 
if I had left her undisturbed, would have 
slept in her subterranean fortress till the 
young leaves sprouted on her tree, in April. 
I disinter others, soft and quite white, 
whose limp wing-cases open to allow the 
crumpled wings to spread. The most ad- 
vanced of these pale sleepers boast, by way 
of a startling contrast, a deep-black rostrum 
with violet gleams. The Sacred Beetle, in 
172 
