Directly it issues from the egg the wriggling creature makes off at random with an activity we should hardly expect in one so young.

It wanders hither and thither, eager to find food and shelter as soon as possible.
Within twenty-four hours it has usually attained both.

I see the tiny grub perforate the horny skin that covers the cotyledons; I watch its efforts; I surprise it sunk half-way in the commencement of a burrow, at the mouth of which is a white floury powder, the waste from the mandibles.

It works its way inward and buries itself in the heart of the seed.

It will emerge in the adult form in the course of about five weeks, so rapid is its evolution.
This hasty development allows of several generations in the year.