Now that the subject of nut weevils has been introduced, let us consider in more detail these grotesque, long-snouted insects whose larvae, or grubs, play havoc with so many of our nuts. Most of us have had the experience of gathering in autumn rich stores of our delicious native chestnuts. But how often our anticipations of boiled and roasted feasts have been blighted. We have found that the chestnuts were like the manna which fed the children of Israel in the wilderness, "When we left of them until the morning they bred worms and became foul." There are numerous cases in this country where chestnuts in shipment have been seized and condemned under the provisions of the Food and Drugs Act. Usually the phraseology of the libel has been "because the shipment consisted in part of filthy animal substances, to wit, worms, worm excreta, worm-eaten chestnuts and decayed chestnuts." Altogether the loss to chestnuts from weevil injury is beyond computation. The beetles which are the parents of the familiar worms in chestnuts are not commonly seen, or, if observed, they are not associated with the disgusting inhabitants of the nut kernels. These beetles represent in their structure a very interesting adaptation to a special end. The mouth is located at the tip of an enormously long snout, or proboscis, and the drill-like instrument is used for puncturing the thick covering of various kinds of nuts so as to admit the egg into the kernel upon which the young will feed. In some cases the mouth is situated at a greater distance from the eyes and other head appendages than is the anal extremity of the insect. There are in the northern part of this country two species which attack chestnuts, one which attacks hickory-nuts, one which attacks hazel-nuts and about a dozen which attack acorns. And here may be mentioned an interesting peculiarity of the feeding habit which is decidedly to the advantage of the nut-grower. Each species adheres closely to its own food plant. The hickory-nut weevil does not attack hazel-nuts nor the hazel-nut weevil hickory-nuts. None of the acorn-infesting species will seek for food in the nuts of chestnut, hickory or hazel. Once the chestnut weevils are absent in a locality, there is no chance that oak trees will serve as a means of spreading the weevils back into the locality. So closely confined are these weevils to their particular food plants that many of them distinguish between the different species of oak and will oviposit only in certain kinds of acorns.