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More Hunting Wasps By: Jean-Henri Fabre (1823-1915) |
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By J. Henri Fabre
Translated By Alexander Teixeira De Mattos, F. Z. S.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE. The fourteen chapters contained in this volume complete the list of
essays in the "Souvenirs entomologiques" devoted to Wasps. The remainder
will be found in the two earlier volumes of this collected edition
entitled "The Hunting Wasps" and the "Mason wasps" respectively. Chapter 2 has appeared before in my version of "The Life and Love of
the Insect," an illustrated volume of extracts translated by myself and
published by Messrs. Adam and Charles Black (in America by the Macmillan
Co.), and Chapter 10 in a similar miscellany translated by Mr. Bernard
Miall published by Messrs. T. Fisher Unwin Ltd. (in America by the
Century Co.) under the title of "Social Life in the Insect World." These
two chapters are included in the present book by arrangement with the
original firms. I wish to place on record my thanks to Mr. Miall for the valuable
assistance which he has given me in preparing this translation. ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS. Ventnor, I. W., 6 December, 1920.
CONTENTS. TRANSLATOR'S NOTE. CHAPTER 1. THE POMPILI. CHAPTER 2. THE SCOLIAE. CHAPTER 3. A DANGEROUS DIET. CHAPTER 4. THE CETONIA LARVA. CHAPTER 5. THE PROBLEM OF THE SCOLIAE. CHAPTER 6. THE TACHYTES. CHAPTER 7. CHANGE OF DIET. CHAPTER 8. A DIG AT THE EVOLUTIONISTS. CHAPTER 9. RATIONING ACCORDING TO SEX. CHAPTER 10. THE BEE EATING PHILANTHUS. CHAPTER 11. THE METHOD OF THE AMMOPHILAE. CHAPTER 12. THE METHOD OF THE SCOLIAE. CHAPTER 13. THE METHOD OF THE CALICURGI. CHAPTER 14. OBJECTIONS AND REJOINDERS. INDEX.
CHAPTER 1. THE POMPILI.
(This essay should be read in conjunction with that on the Black bellied
Tarantula. Cf. "The Life of the Spider," by J. Henri Fabre, translated
by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chapter 1. Translator's Note.)
The Ammophila's caterpillar (Cf. "The Hunting Wasps," by J. Henri Fabre,
translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chapters 13 and 18 to 20;
and Chapter 11 of the present volume. Translator's Note.), the Bembex
(Cf. idem: chapter 14. Translator's Note.), Gad fly, the Cerceris (Cf.
idem: chapters 1 to 3. Translator's Note.), Buprestis (A Beetle
usually remarkable for her brilliant colouring. Cf. idem: chapter
1. Translator's Note.) and Weevil, the Sphex (Cf. idem: chapter 4 to
10. Translator's Note.), Locust, Cricket and Ephippiger (Cf. "The Life
of the Grasshopper," by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander
Teixeira de Mattos: chapters 13 and 14. Translator's Note.): all
these inoffensive peaceable victims are like the silly Sheep of our
slaughter houses; they allow themselves to be operated upon by the
paralyser, submitting stupidly, without offering much resistance. The
mandibles gape, the legs kick and protest, the body wriggles and twists;
and that is all. They have no weapons capable of contending with the
assassin's dagger. I should like to see the huntress grappling with
an imposing adversary, one as crafty as herself, an expert layer of
ambushes and, like her, bearing a poisoned dirk. I should like to see
the bandit armed with her stiletto confronted by another bandit equally
familiar with the use of that weapon. Is such a duel possible? Yes, it
is quite possible and even quite common. On the one hand we have the
Pompili, the protagonists who are always victorious; on the other hand
we have the Spiders, the protagonists who are always overthrown. Who that has diverted himself, however little, with the study of insects
does not know the Pompili? Against old walls, at the foot of the banks
beside unfrequented footpaths, in the stubble after the harvest, in the
tangles of dry grass, wherever the Spider spreads her nets, who has not
seen them busily at work, now running hither and thither, at random,
their wings raised and quivering above their backs, now moving from
place to place in flights long or short? They are hunting for a quarry
which might easily turn the tables and itself prey upon the trapper
lying in wait for it... Continue reading book >>
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