“Another balaninus, smaller but of the same shape and color, lives in acorns in its larva state, and is known as the oak-balaninus. A third, not very often seen around here, lives in cherry-stones. It is the cherry-balaninus.” “How different they all are in their ways of living!” Jules remarked. “The grain-weevil gnaws the kernels of grain; the vine-weevils and fruit-weevils roll leaves or prick pears and plums or cut the buds; and now here are the nut-weevils that attack the hazelnut-meat, the cherry-stone, and the acorn. Are there any that eat flowers?” “Indeed there are. No part of a plant is spared by insects. The apple-tree, the pear-tree, and the cherry-tree have each its peculiar weevil that in its larva state lives at the expense of the flower buds. These ravagers are called by a Greek name meaning flower-eaters. See this apple-tree weevil, the one most familiar to us. It is brown, with a small white stripe edged with black and placed slantwise on the end of each wing sheath. Beginning in April, it spreads over the apple-trees and pierces the flower buds with its fine beak, laying an egg in each one. A week later the larva is hatched out, and immediately the little worm begins to gnaw the flower that is curled up in the bud. Only the outside covering is left intact by this devourer. Of course a bud that has had its heart eaten out cannot blossom, and so flower and fruit are both lost. The damaged buds, being gnawed only within, keep their shape and take in drying the appearance of cloves.” “Those cloves that Mother Ambroisine puts in stews?” asked Emile. “The same.” “What are cloves?” “They are, as I have already told you, [10] the buds or unopened flowers of the clove-tree, an aromatic bush growing in hot countries. They are gathered before opening and are dried in the sun.” “I see why buds pricked by the flower-weevil look like cloves. In both cases they are buds that have dried up without opening.” “The larva of the flower-weevil, like those of weevils in general, is a tiny legless worm, white in color. It does not leave the bud it has gnawed when this falls from the tree. The larva of the nut-weevil leaves its nut by boring a hole through the shell, that of the conical weevil leaves the fallen shoot, the vine-weevil lets itself drop out of its rolled leaf, and all three bury themselves in the ground to pass the winter in safety and be transformed the following spring. The larva of the flower-weevil is more expeditious: its change into an insect takes place as soon as it has eaten its bud, so that there is no need for it to leave its quarters. As animals never do anything without a purpose, the grub remains shut up in the dry bud. Six weeks after the egg is laid the larva emerges transformed into a perfect insect and flits from one apple-tree to another all summer. Then comes the winter.” “That must be a trying time,” said Jules.