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FABRE'S

BOOK OF INSECTS




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THE SACRED BEETLE
Sometimes the Scarab seems

to

a friend

enter into partnership zvith
Poge 13


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FAB RE'S

?

BOOK OF INSECTS

RETOLD FROMALEXANDER TEIXEIRADE MATTOS'
TRANSLATK)N of FABRES "SOUVENIRS ENTOMOLOGIQUES"

FT MRS.RODOLPH STAWELL
Illustrated

hy

E-J-DETMOLD

NEW YORK
DODD,

MEAD AND COMPANY
1921


COPTBIOHT, 1921.

Bt DODD. itEAD AND COICPANT. INQ

PRINTRD nr

U. B. A.


CONTENTS
CHAPTER

I

MY WORK AND MY WORKSHOP
CHAPTER
THE SACRED BEETLE

CHAPTER

PAGE
i

II

u

m

THE CICADA

2$

CHAPTER
THE PRAYING MANTIS

IV
40

CHAPTER V

THE GLOW-WORM

54

CHAPTER

VI

A MASON-WASP

69

CHAPTER

THE PSYCHES

VII

89
vii


CONTENTS
CHAPTER VIII
THE SELF-DENIAL OF THE SPANISH COPRIS

CHAPTER IX
TWO STRANGE GRASSHOPPERS

PACE
.

.

109

121

CR\PTER X

COMMON WASPS

138

CHAPTER XI
THE ADVENTURES OF A GRUB

157

CHAPTER

XII

THE CRICKET

175

CHAPTER

XIII

THE SISYPHUS

198

CHAPTER XIV

THE CAPRICORN

209

CHAPTER XV
LOCUSTS

227

CHAPTER XVI
THE ANTHRAX FLY
viii

149


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE SACRED BEETLE

.

.

Frontispiece

.

Sometimes the Scarab seems to enter into partnership with a friend

THE CICADA

^,„„,
PASB

In July, when most of the insects in my sunny country are parched with
thirst, the Cicada remains perfectly cheerful

26

THE PRAYING MANTIS
A

long time ago, in the days of ancient Greece, this insect was
Mantis, or the Prophet

named
42

PELOPiEUS SPIRIFEX
When

finished the work is amber-yellow,
outer skin of an onion

and rather reminds one of the
80

THE PSYCHES
It is a
is the secret of the walking bundle of sticks.
Caterpillar, belonging to the group known as the Psyches

This

Faggot

...

90

THE SPANISH COPRIS
The burrow

is almost filled by three or four ovoid nests, standing one
116
against the other, with the pointed end upwards

THE WHITE-FACED DECTICUS
The Greek word
is

dectikos

well named.

It is

means biting, fond of biting. The Decticus
eminently an insect given to biting
.130
.

.

.

COMMON WASPS
The

wasp's nest

formed of

is

made

of a thin, flexible material like brown paper,

particles of

wood

144

THE FIELD CRICKET
one of the humblest of creatures able to lodge himself to
He has a home; he has a peaceful retreat, the first
180
condition of comfort

Here

is

perfection.


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE SISYPHUS
PAfll

The mother

The

harnesses herself in the place of honour, in front.

father pushes behind in the reverse position, head

downwards

.

.

204

.

.

238

ITALIAN LOCUSTS
"I have buried underground," she says, "the treasure of the future"

THE ANTHRAX FLY
Her

delicate suit of

downy

merely breathing on
tunnels

it,

velvet,

from which you

take the

bloom by

could not withstand the contact of rough

258


FABRE'S

BOOK OF INSECTS



BOOK OF INSECTS

FABRE'S

CHAPTER

I

MY WORK AND MY WORKSHOP

WE

have our own

all

Sometimes these

talents, our special gifts.

gifts

seem

to

come

from our forefathers, but more often

to us
it is

difficult to trace their origin.

A goatherd,

perhaps, amuses himself by counting little

pebbles and doing sums with them.

He

becomes an

toundingly quick reckoner, and in the end
of mathematics.

is

as-

a professor

Another boy, at an age when most of

us care only for play, leaves his schoolfellows at their

games and

listens to the

secret concert heard

music.
his

A

third

—

imaginary sounds of an organ, a

by him alone.

He

has a genius for

so small, perhaps, that he cannot eat

bread and jam without smearing his face

keen delight in fashioning clay into

amazingly

lifelike.

—takes a

little figures

If he be fortunate he will

that are

some day

be a famous sculptor.

I

To talk about oneself is hateful, I know, but perhaps
may be allowed to do so for a moment, in order to intro-

duce myself and my studies.
[1]


FABRE'S
From my

BOOK OF INSECTS

earliest childhood

the things of Nature.

It

I

have

felt

drawn towards

would be ridiculous

that this gift, this love of observing plants

my

soil

Of my

and sheep.

suppose

and

insects,

who were uneducated
and observed little but their own cows

was inherited from
people of the

to

ancestors,

four grandparents only one ever

opened a book, and even he was very uncertain about

Nor do

spelling.

I

owe anything

Without masters, without

to a scientific training.

guides, often without books, I

have gone forward with one aim always before

add a few pages

As

—

self as a tiny boy,

of

my

so

many

years back!

extremely proud of

attempts to learn the alphabet.

remember

the delight of finding

gathering

my

One day
row of

From

I

first

trees that

window

the sky, tossing before the

wind

—ever

I

my

can see my-

I

first

And

first

braces and

very well

bird's nest

I

and

At the top of

it

was a

I

could see them against

or writhing

madly

in the

wished to have a closer view of them.

was a long climb
short.

—

had long interested me very much.

home

I

my

a hill.

at

snow, and

to

:

mushroom.

was climbing

the little

me

to the history of insects.

look back

I

his

so long;

and

my

legs

It

were very

clambered up slowly and tediously, for the

grassy slope was as steep as a roof.

Suddenly, at

my

feet, a lovely bird flew

[2]

out from

its


MY WORK AND MY WORKSHOP
hiding-place under a big stone.

found the

and had

nest,

In a

which was made of hair and

by

six eggs laid side

side in

nest I ever found, the

first

birds were to bring me.

of the

I

had

fine straw,

The eggs were

it.

a magnificent azure blue, very bright.

lay

moment

This was the

many

first

joys which the

Overpowered with

pleasure, I

down on the grass and stared at it.

Meanwhile the mother-bird was
from stone

she was suffering.

of prey.

I

"Tack!

to stone, crying

the greatest anxiety.

Tack!"

was too small

I
I

flying about uneasily

made

to

in a voice of

understand what

a plan worthy of a little beast

would carry away

just one of the pretty blue

eggs as a trophy, and then, in a fortnight,

I

would come

back and take the tiny birds before they could
Fortunately, as

I

away.

walked carefully home, carrying my blue

egg on a bed of moss,

"Ah!" said

fly

he.

I

met

"A

the priest.

Saxicola's egg

I

Where did you

get it?"
I told

him the whole

others," I said,

"when

story.

the

"I shall go back for the

young

birds have got their

quill-feathers."

"Oh, but you mustn't do that I" cried the

"You mustn't

priest.

be so cruel as to rob the poor mother of

all her little birds.

Be a good boy, now, and promise not

to touch the nest."

[3]


BOOK OF INSECTS

FABRE'S
From

conversation

this

that robbing birds' nests

and beasts have names

"What

are the

Saxicola

just like ourselves.

mean?"

all

asked

I

first,

cruel and, secondly, that birds

is

names of

and meadows?"

two things:

learnt

I

Years

my

"And what does

myself.
later I

means an inhabitant of the

woods

friends in the

learnt that Saxicola

My

rocks.

bird with the

blue eggs was a Stone-chat.

Below our
the brook

was a spinney of beeches with smooth, straight

The ground was padded with

trunks, like pillars.
It

was

in this

spinney that

which looked, when

dropped on the
were

many

colours.

and beyond

village there ran a little brook,

I

nrjoss

I

my

picked

first

moss.

mushroom,

like

an egg

by some wandering hen.

There

caught sight of

it,

others there, of different sizes, forms,

Some

extinguishers,

were

some

shaped

like cups:

like

bells,

some

and
like

some were broken, and

were weeping tears of milk: some became blue when
I trod

Others, the most curious of

on them.

like pears

—

with a round hole at the top

whence a whiff of smoke escaped when

under-side with
these,

my

finger.

I

and made them smoke at

filled

my

all,

a sort of
I

my

were

chimney

prodded their
pockets with

leisure, till at last

they were reduced to a kind of tinder.

Many

a time

I

returned to that delightful spinney,

[4]


MY WORK AND MY WORKSHOP
and

my

learnt

company of

first

lessons

in

My

the Crows.

mushroom-lore in the

collections, I

need hardly

were not admitted to the house.

say,

—by observing Nature and making experi-

In this way^

ments

—nearly

all

except two, in fact.

my
I

lessons

my

all

have received from others two

lessons of a scientific character,

whole course of

have been learnt:

and two only,

in the

one in anatomy and one in

life:

chemistry.
I

owe

the

first

to the learned naturalist

who showed me how

don,

to explore the interior of a

Snail in a plate filled with water.

and

The

lesson

was short

fruitful.^

My first introduction to
It

Moquin-Tan-

ended

chemistry was less fortunate.

in the bursting of a glass vessel, with the result

that most of

my

fellow-pupils were hurt, one of them

nearly lost his sight, the lecturer's clothes were burnt to
pieces,

with

and the wall of the lecture-room was splashed

stains.

Later on, when

I

returned to that room, no

longer as a pupil but as a master, the splashes were

On

there.

Ever

after,

my pupils
It has
*

still

that occasion I learnt one thing at least.

when

I

made experiments

of that kind,

I

kept

at a distance.

always been

my great desire

to

have a laboratory

See Insect Adventures, retold for young people from the works of Henri Fabre.

[5]