186 



EVENINGS AT THE MICEOSCOPE. 



the first bend of tMs angle is composed of a single 

 joint, the soapus, which is, in this family, greatly 

 lengthened ; and then the two or three final joints 

 are much thicker than all the others, and are as it 

 were fused together into a large oval knob, called the 

 club. 



Now, a word or two in explanation of this very sin- 

 gular form of head and head-organs. The larva or 

 grub stage of these insects is destined to be passed in 

 the interior of fruits and seeds ; the individual which 

 we have been examining (BoHaninus nucum) was born 

 one morning in August in the interior of a hazel-nut. 

 Its parent had chosen a suitable nut, just then when 

 it is set for fruit, and as yet green and soft ; and had 

 with her proboscis, or rather with her jaws at its tip, as 

 with a gimlet, bored a tiny hole through the yielding 

 shell into the very interior ; then turning round, and 

 inserting the extremity of her abdomen with its ovipos- 

 itor, she had shot an egg into this dark cavity. The 

 juices poured forth at the wound soon healed the ori- 

 fice ; the nut grew ; and presently the egg became a 

 little white grub. He then rioted in plenty ; prolonged 

 his darkling feast 



" From night to morn, from mom to dewy eve ; " 



— 'twas all " dewy eve" to him, by the way, for no 

 ray of light saw he, till that prosperous condition of 

 existence was done. No wonder he grew fat ; and fat 

 those rogues of nut-weevils always are, as you well 

 know. Well, when the nut fell, in October, the kernel 

 was all gone, completely devoured, and our little high- 

 way-robber was ready for his winter sleep : he gnawed 

 a fresh hole through the now hard shell, made his way 



