The Iris-Weevil 
it comes from an iris of some sort or other. 
And this is not, as one might reasonably 
suppose, an aberration caused by the tedium 
of captivity. I have found in the harmas } 
on the tall stalks of the pale Turkey iris, 
a group of our Weevils feeding together on 
the green capsules. Whence came they, 
these pilgrims observed for the first time 
between my four walls? How did they 
learn, these colonists from the moist river- 
banks, that an iris which provided excellent 
eating was flowering amid the aridities of 
my acre of pebbles? At any rate they left 
no part of the young capsules intact. The 
food discovered suited them very well. It 
was therefore impossible for me to profit by 
this windfall in order to ascertain whether 
the unfamiliar plant would serve for the 
establishment of the family. 
Apart from the genus /ris, are there any 
other plants, its near botanical relations, 
whose fruits are accepted? I have vainly 
tried the trivalvular capsules of the corn-flag 
(Gladiolus segetum, GAwL.) and _ the 
1 The enclosed piece of waste land on which the author 
used to study his insects in the wild state. Cf. The Life 
of the Fly: chap. i—Translator’s Note. 
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