254 
LIFE AND HER CHILDREN. 
eat into solid wood, only makes this difference, that 
he spends his three or sometimes even six years of 
childhood in the trunk of an old oak-tree, gnawing 
away at it for his daily meal, and only sees day- 
light when he eats his way out as the perfect beetle. 
Fig. 87. 
The Nut Weevil.* 
w, The perfect weevil ; m, head of the maggot eating its way out 
of the nut. 
But the little weevils with their curious snouts 
(Fig. 87), which they use for piercing holes in which 
to place their eggs, love best the centre of flowers or 
tender leaves, or especially fruits and nuts of various 
kinds, for their nursery. When we crack a nut, and. 
find a fat white maggot inside, w r e have disturbed 
the forerunner of one of these little weevils, which, 
* Balaninus nucum. 
