The Pea-Weevil: The Larva 
skin, all around the circumference. The 
perfect insect will only have to heave with 
its shoulders, to strike a blow or two with its 
head, in order to raise the lid and knock it 
off, like the lid of a box. The exit-hole 
shows through the transparent skin of the 
pea in the shape of a-large circular spot, 
darkened by the obscurity within. What 
happens below cannot be seen, hidden as it 
is behind a sort of ground-glass window. 
A pretty invention, this little port-hole, 
this barricade against the invader, this trap- 
door lifted with a push of the hermit’s 
shoulder when the time has come. Shall we 
give the Bruchus the credit of it? Could the 
ingenious insect imagine the enterprise, 
ponder a plan and work upon a scheme of 
its own devising? ‘This would be a fine 
triumph for a Weevil’s brain. Before 
deciding, let us hear what experiment has to 
tell us. 
I skin some inhabited peas; I save them 
from drying too quickly by placing them in 
glass tubes. The grubs do as well here as 
in the intact peas. The preparations for the 
deliverance are made at the proper time. 
If the miner acts on its own inspiration, 
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