The Wonders of Instinct: Chapters in the Psychology of Insects

From the opening

Note:--Chapters 5 and 6 have been translated by Mr. Bernard Miall; the remainder by Mr. Alexander Teixeira de Mattos.

THE HARMAS. 1. The author and his two daughters in the lilac-walk. 2. J.H. Fabre's house at Serignan.

INSECTS AT REST. Bees and wasps asleep, extended in space by the strength of their mandibles.

THE LARVA OF THE GREAT CAPRICORN. 1. The grub. 2. The grub digging its galleries in the trunk of the oak.

EXPERIMENT 1. The mole is fixed fore and aft, with a lashing of raphia, to a light horizontal cross-bar resting on two forks. The Necrophori, after long tiring themselves in digging under the body, end by severing the bonds.

EXPERIMENT 2. A dead mouse is placed on the branches of a tuft of thyme. By dint of jerking, shaking and tugging at the body, the Burying-beetles succeed in extricating it from the twigs and bringing it down.

EXPERIMENT 3. With a ligament of raphia, the Mole is fixed by the hind feet to a twig planted vertically in the soil. The head and shoulders touch the ground. By digging under these, the Necrophori at the same time uproot the gibbet, which eventually falls, dragged over by the weight of its burden.

EXPERIMENT 4. The stake is slanting; the Mole touches the ground, but at a point two inches from the base of the gibbet. The Burying-beetles begin by digging to no purpose under the body. They make no attempt to overturn the stake. In this experiment they obtain the Mole at last by employing the usual method, that is by gnawing the bond.

THE BLUEBOTTLE LAYING HER EGGS IN THE SLIT OF A DEAD BIRD'S BEAK.

THE LYCOSA LIFTING HER WHITE BAG OF EGGS TOWARDS THE SUN, TO ASSIST THE HATCHING. The Lycosa lying head downwards on the edge of her pit, holding in her hind-legs her white bag of eggs and lifting them towards the sun, to assist the hatching.

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