“It is vexatious that all too often the insect’s labors involve harm and loss to us. When a fruit-tree has been operated on by the conical weevil you can see, in the month of May, the tips of the shoots hanging withered and blackened, after which they dry up and fall.”
“Do the larvæ stay in the tips of the fallen branches?” asked Jules.
“What would they do there? Food would fail them, and so they bury themselves in the ground to finish their growth and pass the winter there snugly and safely. In the spring their metamorphosis takes place.”
“Then to guard against insect ravages for the next year,” said Louis, “the withered shoots that hang from the trees should be collected and burned while the larvæ are still there.”
“Yes, that is the best thing to do.” [[321]]
CHAPTER XLIII
NUT-WEEVILS AND FLOWER-WEEVILS
“Ha, you rascal, I’ve caught you at it now, eating my hazelnuts!” cried Louis one day on seeing a weevil piercing with its long beak a still tender young nut. “I’ve caught you at it. But first I’ll learn all about you, and then we’ll have a reckoning.”
