on it, the larva of the Nutweevii has been a4 work. The perfect insect, early in August) hovers about nut trees, for the purpose of pr o• viding a secure retreat for her future progeny. Directed by pure instinct, fbr it cannot be affection for objects she has never seen, she singles out a nut, which she prerces with her proboscis, and then,. turning round, deposits an egg in the hole she has bored, She passes from one nut to another, providing, in the same manner, for her whole stock of eggs. The nut, apparently uninjured, continues to grow till the kernel is ripe. When the maggot is hatched, it feeds on the nut ; which, by the time it is nearly consumed, fails to the ground,. without hurting its inmate. When approach ing its change, the maggot prepares for its escape by enlarging the bole previously made in the shell,. As soon ass it has emerged from its lurking place, it begins to hurrov under the surface of the ground, where it lies dor mant for eight months, and then, casting its skin, becomes a chrysalis ; in which state is remains till August, when it assumes the form of a small, brown beetle,, with a very longo snout.

In a manner similar to that I have just de scribed, the Weevil, properly so called, ano then species of the same genus,, attacks the -

mains