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NEW FACTS ABOUT BOGS' LIVESLAND LOVES
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The Tragic Honeymoons of the Praying Mantis, the
Sixth Sense of the Moth, the Misunderstood Cigale
THE stories of the intelligence
shown by the ant and the
bee, their complex social hab
its and the evidences of a real Insect
civilization, make up one of ;ha
un st marvelous chapters of nature.
But the ant and the bee are not
al no in the insect world in their
possession of what seems to be the
By Dr. J. H. Fabre
(From 'Social Life in the Insect World”}
-topyrlsbud b, th. Century Ccnp..,,. Sew ton.'
FAME is the daughter of legend
Whj is taere tiiat doesn't
know the legend of the cl
eaie. who went begging for food to
Cite ant, and was told: “You san-
The Love Tragedy of the
Scorpions.
I
A
I—-The Scorpion. Meet Each
Other and. Claws Clasped, Per
form This Solemn Dance to
Celebrate Their Engagement.
2
2 i hei for Several Hour* They ‘Hold Hand»” in
1 his Manner, Gazing Into Each Other’s Eyes.
3
3—-1 he Female Scorpion Then Lead* Her New
Mate to His Rest.
4 ,
Aft- Mr r < (
4 A.ter the Honeymoon the Scorpion Bride Sets Upon
•er Bridegroom and De vours Him.
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S—lhe Scorpion Mother Playing Lik«- B Cat and '.littens with Her
Brood. (Photographs by Dr J H Fabre.
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higher reason, as well as at, least
one ether sense which man does not
possess. Dr. J. H. Fabre, the great
est student of insect life in tne
world, French scientist and a phil
osopher. has just written it book
which has given him the title of
The Homer of the Insect.” A few
extracts fron it are printed on this
page.
nil Summer. Now dance all Winter,
and keep warm.” Let us seek to re
habilitate the songstress so calum
niated by the fable. At no time
does the cigale plead starvation at
the doors of the ant hills; the ant.
on the contrary, harassed by
drought, begs of the songstress!
logs, do I say? Borrowing and re
paying are no part of the manners
of this landpirate. She exploits
the cigale; shfl impudently robs her
l et us consider this theft; a curi
ous point of insect history as yet un
known.
In July during the stifling nours
of the afternoon, when the Insect
peoples frantic with drought, wan
der hitler and thither vainlv seek
ing to quench their thirst, the cigale
makes light of the genera) aridity
fS ° n V’ e ,wlg of a «nltab>e
shrub she perforates the rind dis •
tended by the sap which the sun
has matured. Paging her pro
boßcis into the bung
hole she drinks.
B There are many
W thirsty creatures
£ wandering hither
and thither, and at
lasi they discovered
the cigale and the
private well, betray
ed by the oozing sap
upon the brink. [
have seen
crowded around 1
the honeyed per
foration, wasps
flies. earwigs, M
sphinx - moths,
pompilidae, rose
chasers, and, above all,
anta, r have seen them
nibbling the ends of
the cigale's claws; I
caught them tugging at
ihe ends of her wings,
climbing on her back’
i ickling her antennae.
One audacious indj.
vidual so far forgot her
self. under my eyes, as
to seize her proboscis,
endeavoring to abstract
it from the well.
So we st- reality
completely reverses the action
described by the fable. The
shameless beggar. who doesn’t
hesitate at theft Is the ant
The industrious worker who will
ingly shares her goods with the
suffering, is the cigale.
Yet another detail, and the re
versal of the fable is further em
phasized. After five or Rix weeks
of gaiety the songstress falls from
the tree exhausted by the fever of
dfe. A bandit in search of booty,
the ant, discovers the remains. She
divides the rich find and cuts it up
into tiny fragments, which goes to
swell her stock of provisions. It is
not uncommon, to see a dying ci
gale, whose wings are still tremb
ling in the dust, drawn and quartered
by a gang of knackers—her body is
black with them. After this in
stance the truth of the relations of
the two insects is obvious.
The tragedies of the Insect world!
Again the cigale. It is late, and
they- are silent. Drowsy with light
and heat they have exhausted them
selves in producing their symphonies
all day long In the thick foliage of
the plain-tree there is a sudden
sound like a cry of anguish. It is
the despairing lamentation of the
cigale, surprised in the silence by
the green grasshopper, that ardent
hunter of the night, which leaps
upon her, seizes her by the flank,
tears her open, and devours the
• c ntents of her stomach. After the
orgy of music comes night and
assassination.
But there Is another creature of
this world which is quite as curious
and as interesting as the cigaie, but
much less famous because it is
voiceless. It js called. by the pro
vcncals Lou Prego-Dlcu'tbe creature
which prays to God. Its official
name is the praying mantis
Good people, how very astray
your childlike simplicity has led
you! These attitudes of prayer
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Two Mantea Fighting Like Prize Fighters with Their
Enormous Claws.
conceal the most atrocious habits;
ihese supplicating arms are lethal
weapons; these lingers tell no
rosaries, but help to exterminate
the unfortunate passer-by It is the
tiger of the peaceful insect peoples:
the ogre in ambush which demands
a tribute of living flesh! If it only
had sufficient strength and size its
bloodthirsty appetites and its hor
rible perfection of concealment
would make it the terror of the
countryside. If man and it were in
lie proportion of the grasshopper
uid the mantis no dragon which
-ver infested earth was ever so
terrible. The Prcgo-Dicu would be
came a satanie vampire. As it fs, I
■ave often been obliged to get a sec
•nd person to free me from one of
liese tenacious captives.
Thanks to a flexible neck, the
head can turn to right or left, bow
or raise its head in the air. Alone
among insects, the mantis is able to
direct its gaze; it inspects and ex
amines: it has almost a physi
ognomy! Its fore-legs and thighs
are nothing but combinations of
spikes, steely spines and double
edged saws. The fore-legs termi
nate in strong hooks, the points of
which are sharp as the finest
needle; a tool which is fluted and
has a double blade like a pruning
knife.
When the mantis is in repose its
weapons are folded and pressed
against th» thorax and are perfect
ly inoffensive in appearance. The
insect is apparently praying. But
let a victim come within reach and
the attitude of prayer is promptly
abandoned. Suddenly unfolded, the
three long joints of the deadly fore
legs shoot out their terminal talons
which strike the victim and drag ii
backward toward the two saw
blades of the thighs- The vise
closes with a movement like tha
of tire forearm upon the upper arm
and all is over; cricket, grass
hopper and even more powerful in
sects, once seized In this trap are
•cat. Their frantic struggles wih
never release the hold of this ter
rible engine of destruction.
At the sight' of o great cricket the
mantis suddenly aßßumes a most
terrifying posture. The wing covers
open and are thrust obliquely aside:
the wings spread to their full width,
standing up like parallel screens of
transparent, gauze, forming a pyra
midal prominence which dominates
the back; the end of the abdomer I
curls upward, then falls and un I
bends itself with a sort of swishing E
noise, a puff like the sound emitted E
by the feathers of a strutting turkey i
cock. One is reminded of the puff ■
ing of a startled adder. Motionless E
in its weird position, the mantis I
surveys the acridian, its gaze fixed I
upon it. its head turning gently as I
on a pivot as the other changes I
place. £
The cricket sees spring up before I
it a terrible spectral form with E
talons outstretched, ready to fa I . I
upon it; it feels itself face to face I
with death and fails to flee while E
there is time. It is said that young I
birds, paralyzed with terror by the i
gaping mouth of serpents will allow I:
themselves io be snatched from tbe
nest. The cricket will often behave
in almost the same way. Once
within reach of the enchantress, the
grappling hooks are thrown, the
fangs strike, the double saws close
together and hold the victim in a
vise.
But. we have yet to learn the
worst. The customs of the mantis
in connection with its own kin are
more atrocious even than those of
the spiders. The female mantis
will always eat her sisters even
when her favorite quarry, the
cricket, is attainable. And, alas, its
poor husband!
We are near the end of AugTist.
The male mantis, a slender add
elegant lover, judges the time to be
prepitious. He makes eyes at his
powerful companion: he turns his
head toward her: he bends his neck.
His little pointed face almost seem
to wear an expression! For a long
time ho stands thus motionless, in
contemplation of the desired one.
The latter, as if indifferent, doe
not stir. He need not despair, she
will accept him as her mate be
cause she loves him as the choices
of game. During the day, or at lat
est on the morrow, he is seized by
his companion, who first gnaws
through the back of tys neck, ac
cording to use and wont, and then
methodically devours him mouthful
by mouthful, leaving only the wings.
Here we have no case of jealousy,
but simply a depraved taste In the
course of two weeks I have seen
the same mantis treat seven bus-
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If the Praying Man
as only had suffi
cient strength and
size it would be
the terror of the
countryside. If man
and it were on the
propo 1 of the
grasshopper and
mantis, no dragon
which ever infested
earth was ever so
terrible. The Preg r >
llicu would become
a Satanic vampire!”
A Little Sun Wor
shipper, the African
Spider Mother, That
Holds the Pellet
Containing Its Egg
Up to the Sun for
Hatching.
The Birth of the Butterfly
I—Th e Caterpiller Climbs th ,
cS,?-'"” 1 b ’ "" C -“M
H '"‘ d B ’—
3 Th* Body Writhes in Its L»k«,
to Attach Itself to the Twig° r
4 Spent with Its Effort. It Hans,
Motionless. •
5 A The .u hr S tal,i * Hood E *‘«d«
Over the Worm.
6—The Chrystallis 1, Complete
7 A Th L C A‘T f Begins; the Win,
bhieids Are Forming.
8— The Butterfly Half Out.
9 The Butterfly Is Bom.
bands in this fashion. She acceptt
them ail and all pay for her favor
with their lives.
The sixth sense of the moth!
There is a great and beautiful
European moth called the Great
Peacock or Emperor. One morning
a female emerged from a cocoon in
my laboratory. I imprisoned her
in a wire gauze cage. That night
was stormy, the sky heavily clouded,
the darkness so profound that out
of doors one could not see one's
hand before one’s face. Yet between
eight and nine o’clock forty courtiers
of the captive princess flew into my
study seeking her ! The Great
Peacock was comparatively rare
near my home. Yet every night they
flew to ’ter. I caught and marked
them. In eight days one hundred
and fifty' had visited me. They must
have come from at least a radius of
a mile and a half. How did they
learn what was happening in my
study. These agents of information
affect the senses at a distance; sight,
sound and smell. Sight could guide
them once they entered the open
window, but how could it keep them
out of doors, among unfamiliar sur
roundings? One would have to im
agine a keenness of vision capable of
annihilating leagues of space, able
to see through walls. Sight cannot
be the guiding sense.
Sound is equally out of question.
The female is absolutely mute. Does
she perhaps limit vibrations of such
delicacy or rapidity that only the
most sensitive microphone could ap
preciate them? The idea is barely
possible.
Smell remains. Are there effluvia
analogous to what we call odor abso
lutely imperceptible to us but capa
ble of stimulating a sense organ far
more sensitive than our own. t
simple experiment suggested itsel!
T would mask these effluvia, stifle
them under a powerful, tenacious
odor which would take complete
possession of the sense organ and
neautralize the less powerful impres
sion.
I sprinkled napthaleno about,
placed a capsule beside the female
and used other strong odors. Ve
the moths arrivedon time. Furthe:
more they care with .. great wind
against which no known scent co -I
travel! The only time the;
not respond was when 1 put the i ‘-
male in a hermetically se: le> gl^ s3
jar!
What is the sense that drew them
so unerringly? Certainly we do not
have it.