BAL AN IN US

In Entomology, the name applied by to the subgenus of Weevils (.Curcutiomda), c! which the nut grub, or nut weevil (Balammis nucum), is a species. In the perfect insect the rostrum or borer is nearly as long as the body. It is by means of this instrument that the parent weevil drills a hole through the soil shell of the immature filbert, into which she introduces a single brown eg<': this is hatched in about a fortnight; and by the time the nut is full ripe, the grub has attained its full growth: it then proceeds to bore a hole with its jaws through the shell, and emerges from the cavity of the nut: fall in" to the ground it burrows into the earth, and there remains all winter, changing to the proper state, and appeering as a perfect insect in August [s. 131]