The Vine-Weevil 
the early days of his final form, begins by 
hardening and colouring his implements of 
labour: the toothed arm-pieces and the 
clypeus with its semicircular notching. The 
Weevil likewise in the first place hardens 
and colours her drill. These industrious 
workers interest me with their preparations. 
Barely has the rest of the body set and 
crystallized before the tools of its future 
work acquire exceptional strength, which they 
owe to an early and long protracted temper- 
ing. 
From the broken shells I also take nymphs 
and larve. The latter apparently will not 
pass beyond the first stage this year. What 
is the use of hurrying? The larva, no less 
than the adult and perhaps more so, is given 
to slumbering through the severities of the 
winter. When the poplar unfurls its sticky 
buds and the Cricket on the greensward 
strikes up the first bars of his melody, they 
will be ready, one and all: the forward and 
backward alike; faithful to the call of spring, 
all will come forth from the ground, eager 
to climb the kindly tree and to renew the 
leaf-rollers’ festival in the sunlight. 
In its pebbly, parching soil, on which the 
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