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Updated: June 13, 2025
In the acorn the dessert of the blackbird is prepared; the Balaninus, the tasty mouthful that puts flesh upon his flanks and music into his throat. Let the blackbird sing, and let us return to the eggs of the Curculionidæ. We know where the egg is at the base of the acorn, because the tenderest and most juicy tissues of the fruit are there. But how did it get there, so far from the point of entry?
The grasshopper has a sabre, an oviscapt which plunges into the earth and sows the eggs at the desired depth; the Leuscopis has a probe which finds its way through the masonry of the mason-bee and lays the egg in the cocoon of the great somnolent larva; but the Balaninus has none of these swords, daggers, or pikes; she has nothing but the tip of her abdomen.
Without seeing it at work, we already suspect that the fantastic beak of the Balaninus is a drill analogous to those which we ourselves use in order to perforate hard materials. Two diamond-points, the mandibles, form the terminal armature of the drill.
Each plant has its lover, drawn to it by a kind of elective affinity and invariable tendency. The Larra makes for the thistle, the Vanessa for the nettle, the Clytus for the ilex, and the Crioceris for the lily. "The weevil knows nothing but its peas and beans, the golden Rhynchites only the sloe, and the Balaninus only the nut or acorn."
If I had tried to continue as I began, and to observe the Balaninus in the liberty of the woods, I should never, even with the greatest good fortune, have had the patience to follow to the end the choice of the acorn, the boring of the hole, and the laying of the eggs, so meticulously deliberate is the insect in all its affairs; as the reader will soon be able to judge.
Many contain nothing out of the way; the Balaninus has bored them but has not laid her eggs in them. They resemble the acorns which for hours and hours were drilled in my laboratory but not utilised. Many, on the contrary, contain an egg. Now however distant the entrance of the bore may be, this egg is always at the bottom of the acorn, within the cup, at the base of the cotyledonary matter.
A second explanation suggests itself, not less perilous. It might be said: "The cuckoo lays her egg on the grass, no matter where; she lifts it in her beak and places it in the nearest appropriate nest." Might not the Balaninus follow an analogous method? Does she employ the rostrum to place the egg in its position at the base of the acorn?
We follow all the manoeuvres of the Balaninus, the acorn-weevil, "burying her drill" which "operates by means of little bites." The narrator calls our attention to the slightest episodes, even to those accidents which sometimes surprise the worker in the course of her labours; when, with the rostrum buried deep in the acorn, her feet suddenly lose their hold.
Not so, if you please, but high and important matters, speaking to us of the infinite pains which preside over the preservation of the least of things; witnesses of a superior logic which regulates the smallest details. The Balaninus, so happily inspired as a mother, has her place in the world and is worthy of notice.
At the end of an hour it has entirely disappeared. A short period of repose follows, and finally the instrument is withdrawn. What is going to happen next? Nothing on this occasion. The Balaninus abandons its work and solemnly retires, disappearing among the withered leaves. For the day there is nothing more to be learned. But my interest is now awakened.
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