FABRE’S
BOOK OF INSECTS
Title: Fabre's Book of Insects
Author: Jean-Henri Fabre
Editor: Mrs. Rodolph Stawell
Illustrator: Edward Julius Detmold
Translator: Alexander Teixeira de Mattos
Release date: December 22, 2021 [eBook #67000]
Most recently updated: October 18, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net/ for Project Gutenberg (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
FABRE’S BOOK OF INSECTS
THE SACRED BEETLE
Sometimes the Scarab seems to enter into partnership with a friend
CHAPTER I PAGE
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
THE CICADA 25
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
A MASON-WASP 69
CHAPTER VII
THE PSYCHES 89 [viii]
CHAPTER VIII
THE SELF-DENIAL OF THE SPANISH COPRIS 109
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
COMMON WASPS 138
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
THE CRICKET 175
CHAPTER XIII
THE SISYPHUS 198
CHAPTER XIV
THE CAPRICORN 209
CHAPTER XV
LOCUSTS 227
CHAPTER XVI
THE ANTHRAX FLY 249 [ix]
THE SACRED BEETLE Frontispiece
Sometimes the Scarab seems to enter into partnership with a friend
THE CICADA FACING PAGE
In July, when most of the insects in my sunny country are parched with thirst, the Cicada remains perfectly cheerful 26
A long time ago, in the days of ancient Greece, this insect was named Mantis, or the Prophet 42
When finished the work is amber-yellow, and rather reminds one of the outer skin of an onion 80
This is the secret of the walking bundle of sticks. It is a Faggot Caterpillar, belonging to the group known as the Psyches 90
The burrow is almost filled by three or four ovoid nests, standing one against the other, with the pointed end upwards 116
The Greek word dectikos means biting, fond of biting. The Decticus is well named. It is eminently an insect given to biting 130
The wasp’s nest is made of a thin, flexible material like brown paper, formed of particles of wood 144
Here is one of the humblest of creatures able to lodge himself to perfection. He has a home; he has a peaceful retreat, the first condition of comfort 180 [x]
The mother harnesses herself in the place of honour, in front. The father pushes behind in the reverse position, head downwards 204
“I have buried underground,” she says, “the treasure of the future” 238
Her delicate suit of downy velvet, from which you take the bloom by merely breathing on it, could not withstand the contact of rough tunnels 258 [xi]