The Life of the Weevil 
clogged ina sticky mess. This needs a spoon 
to remove it, not a gouge. Mt all events, the 
exit is always made at some point of the 
floor thoroughly cleaned by the mother, 
where there is neither gum nor fleshy pulp 
to hamper the proper working of the tool. 
What is happening at the same time with 
the gummy sloes? Nothing whatever. I 
wait a month: nothing yet. I wait two, 
three, four months: nothing, still nothing. 
Not a grub comes out of my prepared sloes. 
At last, in December, I decide to see what 
has been going on inside. I crack the stones 
whose air-holes I have blocked with gum. 
Most of them contain a dead maggot, 
which has dried up while quite young. Some 
hide a live larva, well developed, but lacking 
in strength. You can see that the creature 
has suffered not from want of food, for the 
kernel is almost entirely consumed, but from 
another unsatisfied need. Lastly, a small 
number show me a live grub and an exit-hole 
made in the regular manner. These lucky 
ones, immured by the gum perhaps when they 
were already full-grown, had the strength to 
perforate the casket; but, finding on top of 
the wood the hateful varnish, which is the 
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