42 chapters
8 hour read
Selected Chapters
42 chapters
INSECT ADVENTURES
INSECT ADVENTURES
BY J. HENRI FABRE Selections from Alexander Teixeira de Mattos’ Translation of Fabre’s “Souvenirs Entomologiques” RETOLD FOR YOUNG PEOPLE BY LOUISE SEYMOUR HASBROUCK ILLUSTRATED BY ELIAS GOLDBERG NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1917 NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1917 COPYRIGHT, 1917, By DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, Inc. Jean Henri Fabre , author of the long series of “Souvenirs Entomologiques” from which these studies are taken, was a French school-teacher and scientist whose peculiar gift fo
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PREFACE
PREFACE
“It is a little late, O my pretty insects,” he adds—he was at this time over sixty; “I greatly fear the peach is offered to me only when I am beginning to have no teeth wherewith to eat it.” He lived, however, to spend many years at his chosen studies. During the last years of his life his fame spread, and in 1910, in his eighty-eighth year, some of his admirers arranged a jubilee celebration for him at Serignan. Many famous men attended, and letters and telegrams poured in from all parts of the
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE GLASS POND
THE GLASS POND
Have you ever had an indoor pond? Such a pond is easy to make and one can watch the life of the water in it even better than outdoors, where the ponds are too large and have too much in them. Besides, when out-of-doors, one is likely to be disturbed by passers-by. For my indoor pond, the blacksmith made me a framework of iron rods. The carpenter, who is also a glazier, set the framework on a wooden base and supplied it with a movable board as a lid; he then fixed thick panes of glass in the four
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE PIRATES’ ATTACK
THE PIRATES’ ATTACK
What is the use of these houses which the Caddis-worms carry about with them? I catch a glimpse of the reason for making them. My glass pond was at first occupied by a dozen Water-beetles, whose diving performances are so curious to watch. One day, meaning no harm and for want of a better place to put them, I fling among them a couple of handfuls of Caddis-worms. Blunderer that I am, what have I done! The pirate Water-beetles, hiding in the rugged corners of the rockwork, at once perceive the wi
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
AN INSECT SUBMARINE
AN INSECT SUBMARINE
Caddis-worms are able to remain on the level of the water indefinitely with no other support than their house; they can rest in unsinkable flotillas and can even shift their place by working the rudder. How do they do it? Do their sticks make a sort of raft? Can the shells contain a few bubbles of air and serve as floats? Let us see. I remove a number of Caddis-worms from their sheaths and put the sheaths in the water. Not one of them floats, neither those made of shells nor those of woody mater
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
AN ENEMY OF THE MASON-BEE
AN ENEMY OF THE MASON-BEE
All is not smooth sailing after the Mason-bee has finished building her dome of cells. It is then that a certain Stelis-wasp, much smaller than the Mason-bee, appears, looks carefully at the outside of the Mason-bee’s home, and makes up her mind, weak and small as she is, to introduce her eggs into this cement fortress. Everything is most carefully closed: a layer of rough plaster, at least two fifths of an inch thick, entirely covers the cells, which are each of them sealed with a thick mortar
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE BEE HERSELF TURNED BURGLAR
THE BEE HERSELF TURNED BURGLAR
Sometimes, when a Mason-bee has stayed too long among the flowers, getting honey for her cell, she finds the cell closed when she returns home. A neighbor Bee has taken the opportunity to lay her eggs there, after finishing the building and stocking it with provisions. The real Bee-owner is shut out. She does not hesitate long about what to do. After she has examined her former home very carefully, to make sure it is closed against her, she seems to say to herself, “An egg for an egg, a cell for
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SOME USEFUL VISITORS OF THE BEES
SOME USEFUL VISITORS OF THE BEES
I have told you about the robber Stelis-wasp who enters the Bee’s cement house and steals the provisions laid up for the Bee-baby; she is not the only one who despoils the poor Mason-bee. There is another Bee, the Dioxys, who acts in about the same way as the Stelis-wasp, except that she sometimes does even worse, and eats up the grub itself, as well as its honey. Then there are the Osmia-bees and the Leaf-cutting Bees, who make themselves very much at home in the Bees’ houses, when they get a c
16 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
MY CATS
MY CATS
The Cat is supposed to have the same power as the Bee to find its way home. I never believed this till I saw what some Cats of my own could do. Let me tell you the story. One day there appeared upon my garden wall a wretched-looking Cat, with matted coat and protruding ribs; so thin that his back was a jagged ridge. My children, at that time very young, took pity on his misery. Bread soaked in milk was offered him at the end of a reed. He took it. And the mouthfuls succeeded one another to such
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE RED ANTS
THE RED ANTS
Among the treasures of my piece of waste ground is an ant-hill belonging to the celebrated Red Ants, the slave-hunting Amazons. If you have never heard about these Ants, their practices seem almost too wonderful to believe. They are unable to bring up their own families, to look for their food, to take it even when it is within their reach. Therefore they need servants to feed them and keep house for them. They make a practice of stealing children to wait on the community. They raid the neighbor
22 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE GNAT AND THE GIANTESS
THE GNAT AND THE GIANTESS
Sometimes all does not go well with the Bee’s family. There are brigands about. One of them is an insignificant Gnat, who is, nevertheless, a bold robber of the Bee. What does the Gnat look like? She is a Fly, less than one fifth of an inch long. Eyes, dark-red; face, white. Corselet, pearl-gray, with five rows of fine black dots, which are the roots of stiff bristles pointing backwards. Grayish abdomen. Black legs. That is her picture. There are many of these Gnats in the colony of Bees I am wa
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE DOORKEEPERS
THE DOORKEEPERS
The Zebra Bee’s spring family, when no accident such as we have been describing has happened, consists of about ten young Bees, all sisters. They save time by using the mother’s house, all of them together, without dispute. They come and go peacefully through the same door, attend to their business, pass and let the others pass. Down at the bottom of the pit, each Bee has her little home, a group of cells which she has dug for herself. Here she works alone; but the passage way is free to all the
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VI THE LEAF-CUTTING BEE
CHAPTER VI THE LEAF-CUTTING BEE
The cover of the pot consists solely of round pieces, and these are cut so exactly by the careful Bee that the edges of the cover rest upon the brim of the honey-bag. No one could do better with the help of compasses. When the row of cells is finished, the entrance to the gallery must be blocked up with a safety stopper. The Bee then returns to the free and easy use of her scissor-jaws which we noticed at the beginning when she was fencing off the back part of the Earthworm’s too-deep burrow; sh
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VII THE COTTON-BEES AND RESIN-BEES
CHAPTER VII THE COTTON-BEES AND RESIN-BEES
She alights on the plant she wishes to use, scrapes it with her mouth, and then passes the tiny flake to her hind-legs, which hold it pressed against the chest, mixes with it still more down, and makes the whole into a little ball. When this is the size of a pea, it goes back to the mouth, and the insect flies off, with her bale of cotton in her mouth. If we have the patience to wait, we shall see her coming back again and again to the same plant, until her bags are all made. The Cotton-bee uses
21 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE ATTACK
THE ATTACK
I leave the Wasp her fifth Worm, which she unearths with my help. I will tell in numbered paragraphs the various acts of the gorgeous drama that passes before my eyes. I am lying on the ground, close to the slaughterer, and not one detail escapes me. 1. The Sand-Wasp seizes the Caterpillar by the back of the neck with the curved pincers of her jaws. The Gray Worm struggles violently, rolling and unrolling its body. The Wasp is quite unconcerned: she stands aside and thus avoids the shocks. Her s
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IX THE WASP AND THE CRICKET
CHAPTER IX THE WASP AND THE CRICKET
The Wasp places herself upon him, belly to belly, but in the opposite direction. She grasps one of the threads at the tip of the Cricket’s abdomen with her mouth and masters with her fore-legs the convulsive efforts of his thick hinder-thighs. At the same time her middle-legs hug the heaving sides of the beaten insect, and her hind-legs force the joint of the neck to open wide. The Wasp then curves herself outward so as to offer the Cricket no chance to bite her, and drives her poisoned sting on
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER X THE FLY-HUNTING WASP
CHAPTER X THE FLY-HUNTING WASP
At the end of two or three days the Wasp-grub will have eaten up the little Fly. Meanwhile the mother Wasp remains in the neighborhood and you see her sometimes feeding herself by sipping the honey of the field flowers, sometimes settling happily on the burning sand, no doubt watching the outside of the house. Every now and then she sifts the sand at the entrance; then she flies away for a while. But, however long she may stay away, she never forgets the young larva who has food enough to last o
16 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XI PARASITES
CHAPTER XI PARASITES
Look at this one, striped black, white, and red, with the figure of a clumsy, hairy Ant. She explores the slope on foot, looks at every nook and corner, sounds the soil with her antennæ. She is a kind of Wasp without wings, named Mutilla, the terrible enemy of the other Wasp-grubs sleeping in their cradles. Though the female Mutilla has no wings, she carries a sharp dagger, or sting. If you saw her, you might think she was a sort of sturdy Ant, gayer in dress than other Ants. If you watched her
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XII FLY SCAVENGERS
CHAPTER XII FLY SCAVENGERS
In my piece of waste ground stand some pine-trees. Every year the Caterpillar takes possession of them and spins his great purses in their branches. To protect the pine-needles, which are horribly eaten, I have to destroy the nests each winter with a long forked stick. You hungry little Caterpillars, if I let you have your way, I should soon be robbed of the murmur of my once so leafy pines. But I am going to make a compact with you. You have a story to tell. Tell it to me; and for a year, for t
32 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE PROCESSIONARIES
THE PROCESSIONARIES
There is an old story about a Ram which was thrown into the water from on board ship, whereupon all the sheep leaped into the sea one after the other; “for,” says the teller of the story, “it is the nature of the sheep always to follow the first, wheresoever it goes; which makes Aristotle mark them for the most silly and foolish animals in the world.” The Pine Caterpillars are even more sheeplike than sheep. Where the first goes all the others go, in a regular string, with not an empty space bet
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE CATERPILLARS AS WEATHER PROPHETS
THE CATERPILLARS AS WEATHER PROPHETS
In January the Pine Caterpillar sheds his skin for the second time. He is not nearly so pretty afterwards, but he has gained some new organs which are very useful. The hairs on the middle of his back are now of a dull reddish color, made paler still by many long white hairs mixed in with them. This faded costume has an odd feature. On the back may be seen eight gashes, like mouths, which open and close at the Caterpillar’s will. When the mouths are open there appears in each of them a little swe
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE PINE MOTH
THE PINE MOTH
When March comes, the Caterpillars leave their nest and their pine-tree and go on their final trip. On the twentieth of March I spent a whole morning watching a file about three yards long, containing about a hundred of the Caterpillars, now much faded as to their coats. The procession toils grimly along, up and down over the uneven ground. Then it breaks into groups, which halt and form independent processions. They have important business on hand. After two hours or so of marching, the little
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIV THE CABBAGE-CATERPILLAR
CHAPTER XIV THE CABBAGE-CATERPILLAR
The eggs are a bright orange-yellow and are laid in slabs, sometimes on the upper surface, sometimes on the lower surface of the leaves. The Caterpillars come out of their eggs in about a week, and the first thing they do is to eat the egg-shells, or egg-wrappers, before tackling the green leaves. It is the first time I have ever seen the grub make a meal of the sack in which it was born, and I wonder what reason it has. I suspect as follows: the leaves of the cabbage are waxed and slippery. To
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XV THE GREAT PEACOCK MOTH
CHAPTER XV THE GREAT PEACOCK MOTH
At this sight, I remember my prisoner of the morning. “Put on your things, laddie,” I say to my son. “Leave your cage and come with me. We shall see something interesting.” We run downstairs to go to my study, which is in the right wing of the house. In the kitchen I find the servant, who is also bewildered by what is happening and stands flicking her apron at great Moths whom she took at first for Bats. It seems that the Great Peacock has taken possession of pretty nearly every part of the hous
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVI THE TRUFFLE-HUNTING BEETLE
CHAPTER XVI THE TRUFFLE-HUNTING BEETLE
And he spoke the truth. The master dug at the spot indicated. If the trowel went astray, the Dog showed the man how to put it right by sniffing at the bottom of the hole. The mushroom was always there. A Dog’s nose cannot lie. But he made us gather all sorts of underground mushrooms: the large and the small, the fresh and the decayed, the scented and the unscented, the fragrant and those which were the reverse. I was surprised at my collection, which included most of the underground fungi of the
26 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVII THE BOY WHO LOVED INSECTS
CHAPTER XVII THE BOY WHO LOVED INSECTS
Nor did either of my own parents. My mother was quite illiterate; my father had been to school as a child, he knew how to read and write a little, but he was too busy making a living to have room for any other cares. A good cuff or two when he saw me pinning an insect to a cork was all the encouragement I received from him. And yet I began to observe, to inquire into things, when I was still almost a baby. My first memories of this tendency will amuse you. One day when I was five or six years ol
31 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE NEST
THE NEST
The Spiders show their great talents even better in the business of motherhood than in their hunting. The silk bag, the nest, in which the Banded Spider houses her eggs, is a much greater marvel than the bird’s nest. In shape it is a balloon turned upside down, nearly the size of a pigeon’s egg. The top tapers like a pear and is cut short and crowned with a scalloped rim, the corners of which are lengthened by means of moorings that fasten the nest to the near-by twigs. The whole, a graceful egg
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE BANDED SPIDER’S FAMILY
THE BANDED SPIDER’S FAMILY
The pretty orange-yellow eggs of the Banded Spider number above five hundred. They are inclosed, you will remember, in a white-satin nest, in which there is no opening of any kind. How will the little Spiders get out, when their time comes and their mother is not there to help them? The animal and vegetable kingdoms are sometimes very much alike. The Spider’s nest seems to me like an animal fruit, which holds eggs instead of seeds. Now seeds have all sorts of ways of scattering. The fruit of the
31 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
A FIGHT WITH A CARPENTER-BEE
A FIGHT WITH A CARPENTER-BEE
Instead of with the Bumble-bee, who enters the Spider’s burrow, I wish to make the Tarantula fight with some other insect, who will stay above ground. For this purpose I take one of the largest and most powerful Bees that I can find, the Carpenter-bee, clad in black velvet, with wings of purple gauze. She is nearly an inch long; her sting is very painful and produces a swelling that hurts for a long time. I know, because I have been stung. Here indeed is a foe worthy of the Tarantula. I catch se
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE TARANTULA’S POISON
THE TARANTULA’S POISON
The Tarantula’s poison is a pretty dangerous weapon, as we shall see. I make a Tarantula bite the leg of a young, well-fledged Sparrow, ready to leave the nest. A drop of blood flows; the wounded spot is surrounded by a reddish circle, changing to purple. The bird almost immediately loses the use of its leg, which drags, with the toes doubled in; it hops upon the other leg. Aside from this, the patient does not seem to trouble much about his hurt; his appetite is good. My daughters feed him on F
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE TARANTULA’S HUNTING
THE TARANTULA’S HUNTING
From the Tarantulas whom I have captured and placed in pans filled with earth in my laboratory, I learn still more about their hunting. They are really magnificent, these captives. With their great bodies inside their burrows, their heads outside, their glassy eyes staring, their legs gathered for a spring, for hours and hours they wait, motionless, bathing luxuriously in the sun. Should a titbit to her liking happen to pass, at once the watcher darts from her tall tower, swift as an arrow from
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE TARANTULA’S BAG
THE TARANTULA’S BAG
You will be surprised to hear how devoted this terrible Tarantula is to her family. Early one morning in August, I found a Tarantula spinning on the ground a silk network covering an extent about as large as the palm of one’s hand. It was coarse and shapeless, but firmly fixed. This is the floor on which the Spider means to work. It will protect her nest from the sand. On this floor she weaves a round mat, about the size of a fifty-cent piece and made of superb white silk. She thickens the outer
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE TARANTULA’S BABIES
THE TARANTULA’S BABIES
In the early days of September, the young ones, who have been some time hatched, are ready to come out. The pill rips open along the middle fold. We have read of this fold. Does the mother, feeling the brood quicken inside the satin wrapper, herself break open the vessel at the right moment? It seems probable. On the other hand, it may burst of itself, as does the Banded Spider’s balloon, a tough wallet which opens a breach of its own accord, long after the mother has ceased to exist. As they co
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
A MEAL OF SUNSHINE
A MEAL OF SUNSHINE
Does the Tarantula at least feed the youngsters who, for seven months, swarm upon her back? Does she invite them to the party when she has captured a prize? I thought so at first; and I gave special attention to watching the mothers eat. Usually, the prey is devoured out of sight, in the burrow; but sometimes a meal is taken on the threshold, in the open air. Well, I see then that while the mother eats, the youngsters do not budge from their camping ground on her back. Not one quits its place or
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE FLIGHT OF THE BABY TARANTULAS
THE FLIGHT OF THE BABY TARANTULAS
As the month of March comes to an end, the mother Tarantula is outside her burrow, squatting on the parapet at the entrance. It is time for the youngsters to leave her. She lets them do as they please, seeming perfectly indifferent to what is happening. The departure begins during glorious weather, in the hottest hours of the morning. First these, then those, of the little ones, according as they feel themselves soaked with sunshine, leave the mother in batches, run about for a moment on the gro
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XX THE CLOTHO SPIDER
CHAPTER XX THE CLOTHO SPIDER
Where is the entrance? All the arches of the edge open upon the roof; not one leads inside. Yet the owner of the house must go out from time to time, if only in search of food; on returning from her expedition, she must go in again. How does she make her exits and her entrances? A straw will tell us the secret. Pass it over the threshold of the various arches. It finds them all carefully closed, apparently. But one of the scallops, if cleverly coaxed, opens at the edge into two lips and stands s
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXI THE SPIDER’S TELEGRAPH-WIRE
CHAPTER XXI THE SPIDER’S TELEGRAPH-WIRE
“The slanting cord is a telegraph wire.” This slanting line is a foot-bridge by which the Spider hurries to her web when there is something going on there, and then, when her errand is finished, returns to her hut. But that is not all it is. If it were, the foot-bridge would be fastened to the upper end of the web. The journey would then be shorter and the slope less steep. The line starts from the center of the net because that is the place where the spokes meet and therefore where the vibratio
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE CRAB-SPIDER’S NEST
THE CRAB-SPIDER’S NEST
Skillful in the prompt despatch of her prey, the little Crab-spider is no less clever in the nesting art. I find her settled on a privet in the inclosure. Here, in the heart of a cluster of flowers, the luxurious creature plaits a little pocket of white satin, shaped like a wee thimble. It is the receptacle for the eggs. A round, flat lid, of a felted fabric, closes the mouth. Above this ceiling rises a dome of stretched threads and faded flowerets which have fallen from the cluster. This is the
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE YOUNG CRAB-SPIDERS
THE YOUNG CRAB-SPIDERS
It is in July that some little Crab-spiders that I have in my laboratory come out of their eggs. Knowing their acrobatic habits, I have placed a bundle of slender twigs at the top of the cage in which they were born. All of them pass through the wire gauze and form a group on the summit of the brushwood, where they swiftly weave a roomy lounge of criss-cross threads. Here they stay, pretty quietly, for a day or two; then foot-bridges begin to be flung from one object to the next. This is the for
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXIII THE LABYRINTH SPIDER
CHAPTER XXIII THE LABYRINTH SPIDER
We soon discover high silk buildings, the threads beaded with dew and glittering in the sun. The children are wonderstruck at those glorious chandeliers, so that they even forget their oranges for a moment. I am not indifferent to them, either. Our Spider’s labyrinth is a splendid spectacle. That and the concert of the Thrushes are worth getting up for. Half an hour’s heat, and the magic jewels disappear with the dew. Now is the time to look at the webs. Here is one spreading its sheet over a la
21 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE STICKY SNARE
THE STICKY SNARE
The spiral part of the Garden Spider’s web is a wonderful contrivance. The thread that forms it may be seen with the naked eye to be different from that of the framework and the spokes. It glitters in the sun, and looks as though it were knotted. I cannot examine it through the microscope outdoors because the web shakes so, but by passing a sheet of glass under the web and lifting it I can take away a few pieces of thread to study. The microscope now shows me an astounding sight. Those threads,
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXV THE GEOMETRY OF THE SPIDER’S WEB
CHAPTER XXV THE GEOMETRY OF THE SPIDER’S WEB
Another property of this spiral is that if one in imagination winds a flexible thread around it, then unwinds the thread, keeping it taut the while, its free end will describe a spiral similar at all points to the original. The curve will merely have changed places. Jacques Bernouilli, the professor of mathematics who discovered this magnificent theorem, had engraved on his tomb, as one of his proudest titles to fame, the spiral and its double, made by the unwinding of the thread. Written undern
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter