[4] The Large White, or Cabbage, Butterfly. Cf. The Life of the Caterpillar: chap. xiv.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[5] A genus of very decorative Butterflies, including such well-known species as the Red Admiral, the Painted Lady, the Camberwell Beauty, the Tortoiseshell Butterfly and the Peacock Butterfly.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[6] Cf. The Hunting Wasps: chaps. i. to iii.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[7] The nearest mountain to the author’s village. Cf. The Hunting Wasps: chap. xi.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
Chapter v
THE ELEPHANT WEEVIL
Some of our machines have odd-looking parts which seem inexplicable so long as they are seen in repose. But wait until the whole is set in motion, when the uncouth contrivance, with its gear-wheels biting and its jointed rods opening and closing, will reveal an ingenious combination wherein everything is cunningly arranged in view of the effects to be obtained. It is the same with various Weevils, notably the Balanini,[1] who, as their name tells us, are charged with the exploitation of acorns, nuts, and other similar fruits.
The most remarkable in my part of the country is the Elephant Weevil, or Acorn-weevil (Balaninus elephas, Sch.). What a well-named insect! Its title is a picture in itself. It is a living caricature, with its prodigious pipe-stem, no thicker than a horse-hair, reddish, almost straight and so long that the insect is obliged to carry it extended like a lance at rest, lest it should stumble, hampered by its instrument. What does it do with this enormous pike, with this ridiculous nose?
Here I see some shrugging their shoulders. In [[72]]fact, if the sole object of life is to make money by hook or by crook, such queries are sheer madness. Happily there are others to whom nothing in the majestic problem of things is trivial. They know of what humble dough the bread of thought is kneaded, a bread no less necessary than that made from wheat; they know that husbandmen and inquirers alike feed the world with an accumulation of minute fragments.