The Life of the Weevil 
a tiny cylinder. They are scattered anyhow 
and anywhere. The mother lays them either 
singly or in little groups, on the sides of the 
jar as well as on the haricots. Her heed- 
lessness is such that she will even fasten 
them to maize, castor-oil-seeds, coffee-beans 
or other seeds, on which the family are 
doomed soon to perish, finding no food to 
their liking. What is the use of maternal 
foresight here? Left no matter where, 
under the heap of beans, the eggs are always 
well-placed, for it is the new-born grubs’ 
business to seek and find the spots at which 
to effect an entrance. 
The egg hatches in five days at most. 
Out of it comes a tiny white creature, with a 
red head. It is a mere speck, just visible 
to the naked eye. The grub is swollen in 
front, to give more strength to its tool, the 
chisel of its mandibles, which has to break 
through the tough seed, hard as wood. ‘The 
larve of the Buprestes and the Capricorns, 
which tunnel through the trunks of trees, are 
similarly shaped. As soon as it is born, the 
crawling worm makes off at random, with an 
activity which we should hardly expect in one 
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