Repeated, tested, and probed in every imaginable way, the child's experiment has become one of the forces of the world.
The observer must neglect nothing; for he never knows what may develop out of the humblest fact.

So again we will ask: by what process did the egg of the elephant-beetle reach a point so far from the orifice in the acorn?
To one who was not already aware of the position of the egg, but knew that the grub attacked the base of the acorn first, the solution of that fact would be as follows: the egg is laid at the entrance of the tunnel, at the surface, and the grub, crawling down the gallery sunk by the mother, gains of its own accord this distant point where its infant diet is to be found.
Before I had sufficient data this was my own belief; but the mistake was soon exposed.

I plucked an acorn just as the mother withdrew, after having for a moment applied the tip of the abdomen to the orifice of the passage just opened by her rostrum.

The egg, so it seemed, must be there, at the entrance of the passage....

But no, it was not! It was at the other extremity of the passage! If I dared, I would say it had dropped like a stone into a well.
That idea we must abandon at once; the passage is extremely narrow and encumbered with shavings, so that such a thing would be impossible.
Moreover, according to the direction of the stem, accordingly as it pointed upwards or downwards, the egg would have to fall downwards in one acorn and upwards in another.
A second explanation suggests itself, not less perilous.