The Life of the Weevil 
support, that is to say, its head anchored to 
the snowy cushion, it brings its hinder end 
a little nearer; it coils up, hunches its back 
and gradually turns itself into a ball. 
Though not yet perceptible, the ampulla is 
being prepared. The siccative has taken 
effect; the original gumminess has been trans- 
formed into a sort of skin, flexible enough at 
this moment to be distended by the pressure 
of the back. When its capacity is large 
enough, the grub will become unglued, throw 
off its envelope and find itself at liberty in a 
spacious enclosure. 
I should much like to see this peeling, but 
things happen so slowly as to drive one to 
despair. Let us go to bed. What I have 
seen is enough to enable me to guess the little 
that remains to be seen. 
Next day, when the pale dawn gives me 
sufficient light, I hasten to my two larva. 
The bladder is completed. It is a graceful 
ovoid of the finest gold-beater’s-skin, adher- 
ing at no point to the insect inside. It has 
taken some twenty hours to manufacture. It 
has still to be strengthened with a lining. 
The transparency of the wall enables us to 
follow the operation. 
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