| These are the flowers of a species of hickory tree common in Indiana.
Each flower develops as a nut . . . some parasites (especially one of the
weevil family which some entomologists call the hickory nut weevil) deposit
their eggs in the flower and they hatch inside the developing nut . . .
using the kernel as food until fall when they chew their way out of the
nut, fall and burrow into the earth where they develop a semi-hard pupa
shell and live until spring . . . they emerge in the following spring as
adults to reinact the cycle and perpetuate the species. |
The worms are between one-fourth and one-half inch
long . . . the nut a little longer than one inch . . . a shellbark variety.
. . the meats of hickory nuts, incidentally, are just as tasty and nourishing
for humans as they are for hickory nut worms. |
