The nuts which are infested by this insect are usually the first to fall to the ground; the larva then bores a round hole through the nut shell, by means of its jaws, and creeps out.
In South Australia there are 38 deep bores, from 20 of which there is a flow of 6,250,000 gallons a day.
The shores are covered with coral; earthquakes and tidal waves are frequent, the latter not taking the form of bores, but of a sudden steady rise and equally sudden fall in the level of the sea; the climate is rather tropical than temperate, but sickness is almost unknown among the residents.
After a longer or shorter period it enters the alimentary canal of its proper host with drinking-water, or it bores through the skin and reaches the bloodvessels, and is so conveyed through the body, in which it becomes sexually mature.
The female is viviparous, and the young, which, unlike the parent, are provided with a long tail, live free in water; it was formerly believed from the frequency with which the legs and feet were attacked by this parasite that the embryo entered the skin directly from the water, but it has been shown by Fedschenko, and confirmed by Manson, Leiper and others, that the larva bores its way into the body of a Cyclops and there undergoes further development.
