Immanuel Kant - "The Metaphysical Elements of Ethics"

Pierre Loti - "Madame Chrysantheme, v2"

E. M. Forster - "The Longest Journey"

Robert Tressell - "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: The Wonders of Instinct

J >> J. H. Fabre >> The Wonders of Instinct




The dying caterpillar continues to lay the silk of his carpet with a slow oscillation of the head. The moment now comes for the parasites to emerge. This happens in June and generally at nightfall. A breach is made on the ventral surface or else in the sides, never on the back: one breach only, contrived at a point of minor resistance, at the junction of two segments; for it is bound to be a toilsome business, in the absence of a set of filing-tools. Perhaps the grubs take one another's places at the point attacked and come by turns to work at it with a kiss.

In one short spell, the whole tribe issues through this single opening and is soon wriggling about, perched on the surface of the caterpillar. The lens cannot perceive the hole, which closes on the instant. There is not even a haemorrhage: the bottle has been drained too thoroughly. You must press it between your fingers to squeeze out a few drops of moisture and thus discover the place of exit.

Around the caterpillar, who is not always quite dead and who sometimes even goes on weaving his carpet a moment longer, the vermin at once begin to work at their cocoons. The straw-coloured thread, drawn from the silk-glands by a backward jerk of the head, is first fixed to the white network of the caterpillar and then produces adjacent warp-beams, so that, by mutual entanglements, the individual works are welded together and form an agglomeration in which each of the grubs has its own cabin. For the moment, what is woven is not the real cocoon, but a general scaffolding which will facilitate the construction of the separate shells. All these frames rest upon those adjoining and, mixing up their threads, become a common edifice wherein each grub contrives a shelter for itself. Here at last the real cocoon is spun, a pretty little piece of closely-woven work.

In my rearing-jars I obtain as many groups of these tiny shells as my future experiments can wish for. Three-fourths of the caterpillars have supplied me with them, so ruthless has been the toll of the spring births. I lodge these groups, one by one, in separate glass tubes, thus forming a collection on which I can draw at will, while, in view of my experiments, I keep under observation the whole swarm produced by one caterpillar.

The adult Microgaster appears a fortnight later, in the middle of June. There are fifty in the first tube examined. The riotous multitude is in the full enjoyment of the pairing-season, for the two sexes always figure among the guests of any one caterpillar. What animation! What an orgy of love! The carnival of these pigmies bewilders the observer and makes his head swim.

Most of the females, wishful of liberty, plunge down to the waist between the glass of the tube and the plug of cotton-wool that closes the end turned to the light; but the lower halves remain free and form a circular gallery in front of which the males hustle one another, take one another's places and hastily operate. Each bides his turn, each attends to his little matters for a few moments and then makes way for his rivals and goes off to start again elsewhere. The turbulent wedding lasts all the morning and begins afresh next day, a mighty throng of couples embracing, separating and embracing once more.

There is every reason to believe that, in gardens, the mated ones, finding themselves in isolated couples, would keep quieter. Here, in the tube, things degenerate into a riot because the assembly is too numerous for the narrow space.

What is lacking to complete its happiness? Apparently a little food, a few sugary mouthfuls extracted from the flowers. I serve up some provisions in the tubes: not drops of honey, in which the puny creatures would get stuck, but little strips of paper spread with that dainty. They come to them, take their stand on them and refresh themselves. The fare appears to agree with them. With this diet, renewed as the strips dry up, I can keep them in very good condition until the end of my inquisition.

There is another arrangement to be made. The colonists in my spare tubes are restless and quick of flight; they will have to be transferred presently to sundry vessels without my risking the loss of a good number, or even the whole lot, a loss which my hands, my forceps and other means of coercion would be unable to prevent by checking the nimble movements of the tiny prisoners. The irresistible attraction of the sunlight comes to my aid. If I lay one of my tubes horizontally on the table, turning one end towards the full light of a sunny window, the captives at once make for the brighter end and play about there for a long while, without seeking to retreat. If I turn the tube in the opposite direction, the crowd immediately shifts its quarters and collects at the other end. The brilliant sunlight is its great joy. With this bait, I can send it whithersoever I please.

We will therefore place the new receptacle, jar or test-tube, on the table, pointing the closed end towards the window. At its mouth, we open one of the full tubes. No other precaution is needed: even though the mouth leaves a large interval free, the swarm hastens into the lighted chamber. All that remains to be done is to close the apparatus before moving it. The observer is now in control of the multitude, without appreciable losses, and is able to question it at will.

We will begin by asking:

"How do you manage to lodge your germs inside the caterpillar?"

This question and others of the same category, which ought to take precedence of everything else, are generally neglected by the impaler of insects, who cares more for the niceties of nomenclature than for glorious realities. He classifies his subjects, dividing them into regiments with barbarous labels, a work which seems to him the highest expression of entomological science. Names, nothing but names: the rest hardly counts. The persecutor of the Pieris used to be called Microgaster, that is to say, little belly: to-day she is called Apanteles, that is to say, the incomplete. What a fine step forward! We now know all about it!

Can our friend at least tell us how "the Little Belly" or "the Incomplete" gets into the caterpillar? Not a bit of it! A book which, judging by its recent date, should be the faithful echo of our actual knowledge, informs us that the Microgaster inserts her eggs direct into the caterpillar's body. It goes on to say that the parasitic vermin inhabit the chrysalis, whence they make their way out by perforating the stout horny wrapper. Hundreds of times have I witnessed the exodus of the grubs ripe for weaving their cocoons; and the exit has always been made through the skin of the caterpillar and never through the armour of the chrysalis. The fact that its mouth is a mere clinging pore, deprived of any offensive weapon, would even lead me to believe that the grub is incapable of perforating the chrysalid's covering.

This proved error makes me doubt the other proposition, though logical, after all, and agreeing with the methods followed by a host of parasites. No matter: my faith in what I read in print is of the slightest; I prefer to go straight to facts. Before making a statement of any kind, I want to see, what I call seeing. It is a slower and more laborious process; but it is certainly much safer.

I will not undertake to lie in wait for what takes place on the cabbages in the garden: that method is too uncertain and besides does not lend itself to precise observation. As I have in hand the necessary materials, to wit, my collection of tubes swarming with the parasites newly hatched into the adult form, I will operate on the little table in my animals' laboratory. A jar with a capacity of about a litre (About 1 3/4 pints, or .22 gallon.--Translator's Note.) is placed on the table, with the bottom turned towards the window in the sun. I put into it a cabbage-leaf covered with caterpillars, sometimes fully developed, sometimes half-way, sometimes just out of the egg. A strip of honeyed paper will serve the Microgaster as a dining room, if the experiment is destined to take some time. Lastly, by the method of transfer which I described above, I send the inmates of one of my tubes into the apparatus. Once the jar is closed, there is nothing left to do but to let things take their course and to keep an assiduous watch, for days and weeks, if need be. Nothing worth remarking can escape me.

The caterpillars graze placidly, heedless of their terrible attendants. If some giddy-pates in the turbulent swarm pass over the caterpillars' spines, these draw up their fore-part with a jerk and as suddenly lower it again; and that is all: the intruders forthwith decamp. Nor do the latter seem to contemplate any harm: they refresh themselves on the honey-smeared strip, they come and go tumultuously. Their short flights may land them, now in one place, now in another, on the browsing herd, but they pay no attention to it. What we see is casual meetings, not deliberate encounters.

In vain I change the flock of caterpillars and vary their age; in vain I change the squad of parasites; in vain I follow events in the jar for long hours, morning and evening, both in a dim light and in the full glare of the sun: I succeed in seeing nothing, absolutely nothing, on the parasite's side, that resembles an attack. No matter what the ill-informed authors say--ill-informed because they had not the patience to see for themselves--the conclusion at which I arrive is positive: to inject the germs, the Microgaster never attacks the caterpillars.

The invasion, therefore, is necessarily effected through the Butterfly's eggs themselves, as experiment will prove. My broad jar would tell against the inspection of the troop, kept at too great a distance by the glass enclosure, and I therefore select a tube an inch wide. I place in this a shred of cabbage-leaf, bearing a slab of eggs, as laid by the Butterfly. I next introduce the inmates of one of my spare vessels. A strip of paper smeared with honey accompanies the new arrivals.

This happens early in July. Soon, the females are there, fussing about, sometimes to the extent of blackening the whole slab of yellow eggs. They inspect the treasure, flutter their wings and brush their hind-legs against each other, a sign of keen satisfaction. They sound the heap, probe the interstices with their antennae and tap the individual eggs with their palpi; then, this one here, that one there, they quickly apply the tip of their abdomen to the egg selected. Each time, we see a slender, horny prickle darting from the ventral surface, close to the end. This is the instrument that deposits the germ under the film of the egg; it is the inoculation-needle. The operation is performed calmly and methodically, even when several mothers are working at one and the same time. Where one has been, a second goes, followed by a third, a fourth and others yet, nor am I able definitely to see the end of the visits paid to the same egg. Each time, the needle enters and inserts a germ.

It is impossible, in such a crowd, for the eye to follow the successive mothers who hasten to lay in each; but there is one quite practicable method by which we can estimate the number of germs introduced into a single egg, which is, later, to open the ravaged caterpillars and count the grubs which they contain. A less repugnant means is to number the little cocoons heaped up around each dead caterpillar. The total will tell us how many germs were injected, some by the same mother returning several times to the egg already treated, others by different mothers. Well, the number of these cocoons varies greatly. Generally, it fluctuates in the neighbourhood of twenty, but I have come across as many as sixty-five; and nothing tells me that this is the extreme limit. What hideous industry for the extermination of a Butterfly's progeny!

I am fortunate at this moment in having a highly-cultured visitor, versed in the profundities of philosophic thought. I make way for him before the apparatus wherein the Microgaster is at work. For an hour and more, standing lens in hand, he, in his turn, looks and sees what I have just seen; he watches the layers who go from one egg to the other, make their choice, draw their slender lancet and prick what the stream of passers-by, one after the other, have already pricked. Thoughtful and a little uneasy, he puts down his lens at last. Never had he been vouchsafed so clear a glimpse as here, in my finger-wide tube, of the masterly brigandage that runs through all life down to that of the very smallest.


INDEX.

Ammophila.

Andrena.

Anoxia.

Ant-lion.

Anthidium.

Anthophora personata.

Anthrax.

Apanteles, see Microgaster glomeratus.

Arundo donax, the great reed.

Audubon, on trapping Turkeys.

Bats.

Bell-ringing Toad.

Bembex.

Bird-catchers.

Blackbirds, Corsican.

Bluebottle.
the laying of the eggs.
hatching.
a test.
paper a protection against.
the grubs.
sand a protection against.

Bower-bird.

Brussels Sprouts, ancestry of.

Buprestis.

Burying-beetles: method of burial.
appearance of the insect.
manipulation of the corpse.
cooperation of individuals.
larvae of.
attacked by vermin.
the dismal end of.
experiments.
test conditions imposed.
conditions of burial.
nets of cordage cut through.
ligatures severed.
limitations of instinct.

Cabbage, ancestry of.
offspring.

Cabbage Butterfly, her selection of suitable Cruciferae.
eggs of.
hatching of the eggs.

Cabbage-caterpillar.
eats egg-cases on emergence.
employment of silk by.
growth and moults.
its voracity.
an old charm against.
the only true charm.
movements of the caterpillar.
its chrysalis.
its deadly enemy.

Calliphora vomitaria, see Bluebottle.

Capricorn Beetle.
the grub.
its cell.
the barricade.
the pupa.
metamorphosis and emergence.

Cauliflower.

Centauries.

Cerambyx miles.

Cerceris.

Cetonia, or Rose-chafer.

Chalicodoma.

Chat, Black-eared.

Cicada.
the grasshopper's victim.

Cicadella.

Clairville on the Burying-beetle.

Clothes-moth.

Cockchafers.

Cole-rape.

Cordillac, philosophy of.

Couch-grass.

Cricket, Italian.
Common Black.

Cruciferae, the diet of Pieris brassicae.

Dasypoda.

Dermestes.

Digger-wasps.

Dragon-fly.

Drilus maroccanus.

Dung-beetles.

Empusa.
larva of.
fore-limbs.
strange head-dress.
food of.
how killed.
metamorphosis of.
curious position assumed in captivity.
pacific nature of.

Epeira, Angular, telegraph wire of.

Epeira fasciator.
appearance of.
its web.
nature of the thread.
her station on the web.
fatty unguent of.
nature of the adhesive glue.
hunting methods.
treatment of prey.
bite of.
the alarm.
the telegraph wire.

Epeira, Silky.

Ephippigera.

Eucera.

Eumenes.
cells of different species.
nest of E. pomiformis.
prey found in nest of E. Amedei.
sex of eggs known to insect.
prey in nest of E. pomiformis.
experiments on larvae.
position of the egg.
suspension of the larvae.
the protective sheath.

Flesh-fly, Grey.
viviparous.
maggots of.
a test.
her attacks on meat-safes.
baffled by sand.

Fly.

Frog, burial of a.

Froghopper.

Geotrupes.

Gledditsch on Burying-beetles.

Glow-worm.
diet of Snails.
anaesthetises its prey.
digestive juice secreted by.
adhesive climbing appendage of.
luminous apparatus of.
regulation of light.
light displayed by females.
eyes of the male.
pairing.
eggs.
luminosity of eggs.
of larvae.

Grasshopper, Green.
the note of the.
stridulating apparatus.
habitat.
food.
mating habits.
eggs.
seminal capsule.

Greenfinch.

Halictus.

Harmas.
description of.

Harmonica.

Horn-beetle.

Hornet.

Hunting-wasp.

Laboratory, the outdoor.

Lacordaire on the Burying-beetle.

Lamellicornis.

Larini.

Linnet, dead, preserved from flies by paper.

Lizard, Eyed.

Locust.
the prey of the Epeira.

Lycosa, Narbonne.
its eyes.
its burrow.
the rampart.
use of same.
methods of catching prey.
method of laying eggs.
the egg-sac.
experiments with.
the hatching process.
the young.
experiments with.
a problem of energy.

Macrocera.

Mantis, Praying.

Mason-bees.
cells used by Osmiae.

Mason-wasps.

Massagetae, customs of the.

Megachiles.

Melolontho fullo.

Michelet.

Microgaster glomeratus.
the exterminator of the Cabbage Caterpillar.
method of feeding.
emergence from the host.
cocoons.
the adult.
pairing.
food.
the eggs laid in the Butterfly's egg.

Mole, burial of a.
a supply of corpses obtained.

Mouse, burial of a.

National festival, the.

Natterjack.

Necrophorus, see Burying-beetles.

Oryctes.

Osmia.
cells of different species.
glass nests of Three-horned Osmia.
distribution of sexes.
optional determination of sex.

Owl.
Horned Owl.
Common Owl.

Oyster-plant.

Pelopaeus.

Pérez, Professor.

Philanthus apivorus.

Phylloxera.

Pieris brassicae.

Pine Processionary.
silken road of.
nest.
use of road.
senses.
nest.
the processionary march.
experiments.
on a circular track.

Pliny, on the Cabbage Caterpillar.

Pompilus.

Rose-chafer.

Sacred Beetle.

Saprini.

Sarcophaga carnaria, see Flesh-fly.

Scarabaeus.

Scolia.

Scops.

Serin-finch.

Sex, distribution, determination and permutations of, in the Osmia.

Silpha.

Sitaris.

Snail-shell, Osmia's use of.

Snail, the prey of the Glow-worm.

Sphex.

Sphex, White-banded.

Spiders.
apprised of prey by vibration.

Staphylinus.

Stizus.

Swede.

Tadpoles.

Tarantula, Black-bellied, see Lycosa.

Thistles.

Thomisus.

Toad, Bell-ringing.

Tree-frogs.

Tree Wasps.

Turkeys, how trapped.

Ventoux, Mount.

Wasp, Common.

Woodpecker.