82 
APPLE WEEVIL. 
scheme for self-preservation will beat him. Now roll him 
into a quill or pill-box, and take him home. Place him^ 
on a sheet of writing paper ; you will soon see his shape — 
the head is furnished with a trunk, from wliich, on each 
side, springs a feeler, bent at right angles forward, so that 
the trunk altogether looks to be three-pronged, like a tri- 
dent. The thorax and wing-cases are brown, beautifully 
mottled; and an oblique line on each, pointing towards 
the suture or meeting of the wing-cases, is much lighter 
coloured, and gives the little beetle an appearance of hav- 
ing a letter V obscurely chalked on its back. Its size al- 
together is rather less than a hempseed.* 
With the first sunshiny day in March, these weevils 
leave their winter quarters, crawl up the trunk and along 
the twigs, perch themselves so as to receive the full benefit 
of the sun's rays, and plume themselves with their legs 
and feet all over, trident and all, just in the same manner 
that a cat washes her face with her paws : they then 
stretch out one leg at a time, cramped, no doubt, by the 
long confinement ; they lift up their wing-cases and unfold 
two large, transparent wings, which, though twice as long 
as the wing-cases, were neatly folded up and hidden under 
them, and then, launching themselves into the air, they go 
roving about the orchards and gardens, their little hearts 
in an ecstasy of freedom, and love, and happiness. It is 
not long before each finds a suitable mate ; no relations 
raise objections ; and the, nuptials are consummated. 
Now I will allow the gentleman weevil to go his way in 
quest of new loves and conquests ; and in the mean time 
I will observe the conduct of the lady. 
* This insect is tlie Anthonomus pomorum of autliors : a second species of 
the same genus infests the pear, and a third the common white-thorn. — E. N. 
