ond the limits
of the botanical family _Phaseolus_. But here is a characteristic that
increases the peril, and shows us this lover of beans in an unexpected
light. Without the slightest hesitation it accepts the dry pea, the
bean, the vetch, the tare, and the chick-pea; it goes from one to the
other, always satisfied; its offspring live and prosper in all these
seeds as well as in the haricot. Only the lentil is refused, perhaps on
account of its insufficient volume. The American weevil is a formidable
experimentalist.

The peril would be much greater did the insect pass from leguminous
seeds to cereals, as at first I feared it might. But it does not do so;
imprisoned in my bottles together with a handful of wheat, barley, rice,
or maize, the Bruchus invariably perished and left no offspring. The
result was the same with oleaginous seeds: such as castor-oil and
sunflower. Nothing outside the bean family is of any use to the Bruchus.
Thus limited, its portion is none the less considerable, and it uses and
abuses it with the utmost energy. The eggs are white, slender, and
cylindrical. There is no method in their distribution, no choice in
their deposition. The mother lays them singly or in little groups, on
the walls of the jar as well as on the haricots. In her negligence she
will even lay them on maize, coffee, castor-oil seeds, and other seeds,
on which the newly born grubs will promptly perish, not finding them to
their taste. What place has maternal foresight here? Abandoned no matter
where in the heap of seeds, the eggs are always in place, as it is left
to the grub to search and to find the points of invasion.

In five days at most the egg is hatched. A little white creature with a
red-brown head emerges. It is a mere speck of a creature, just visible
to the naked eye. Its body is thickened forward, to give more strength
to its implements--its mandibles--which have to perforate the hard
substance of the dry bean, which is as tough as wood. The larvae of the
Buprestis and the Capricornis, which burrow in the trunks of trees, are
similarly shaped. Directly it issues from the egg the wriggling creature
makes off at random with an activity we should hardly expect in one so
young. It wanders hither and thither, eager to find food and shelter as
soon as possible.

Within twenty-four hours it has usually attained both. I see the tiny
grub perforate the horny skin that covers the cotyledons; I watch its
efforts; I surpr