The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles. Fabre Jean-Henri

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СКАЧАТЬ one pair on the mesothorax and the rest on the first eight segments of the abdomen. The last pair, that on the eighth abdominal segment, consists of stigmata so small that to detect them we have to gather their position by that in the succeeding states of the larva and to pass a very patient magnifying-glass along the direction of the other pairs. These are as yet but vestigial stigmata. The others are fairly large, with pale, round, flat edges.

      If in its first form the Sitaris-larva is organized for action, to obtain possession of the coveted cell, in its second form it is organized solely to digest the provisions acquired. Let us take a glance at its internal structure and in particular at its digestive apparatus. Here is a strange thing: this apparatus, in which the hoard of honey amassed by the Anthophora is to be engulfed, is similar in every respect to that of the adult Sitaris, who possibly never takes food. We find in both the same very short oesophagus, the same chylific ventricle, empty in the perfect insect, distended in the larva with an abundant orange-coloured pulp; in both the same gall-bladders, four in number, connected with the rectum by one of their extremities. Like the perfect insect, the larva is devoid of salivary glands or any other similar apparatus. Its nervous system comprises eleven ganglia, not counting the oesophageal collar, whereas in the perfect insect there are only seven: three for the thorax, of which the last two are contiguous, and four for the abdomen.

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      1

      Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), author of La Psychologie du goût. —Translator's Note.

      2

      Cf. The Hunting Wasps, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: passim. —Translator's Note.

1

Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), author of La Psychologie du goût. —Translator's Note.

2

Cf. The Hunting Wasps, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: passim. —Translator's Note.

3

.195 inch. —Translator's Note.

4

Cf. The Mason-bees, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chap. viii.; and Bramble-bees and Others, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: passim. —Translator's Note.

5

Cf. The Mason-wasps, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chaps. vi. and x. —Translator's Note.

6

Cf. The Life of the Fly, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chaps. ii. and iv. —Translator's Note.

7

Cf. Bramble-bees and Others: passim. —Translator's Note.

8

Mites and Ticks. —Translator's Note.

9

A genus of Beetles of which certain species (Clerus apiarius and C. alvearius) pass their preparatory state in the nests of Bees, where they feed on the grubs. —Translator's Note.

10

Another genus of Beetles. The grub of A. musæorum, the Museum Beetle, is very destructive to insect-collections. —Translator's Note.

11

.026 inch. —Translator's Note.

12

Fabre, as a young man, was a master at Avignon College. Cf. The Life of the Fly: chaps. xii., xiii., xix. and xx. —Translator's Note.

13

Jean Marie Léon Dufour (1780-1865), an army surgeon who served with distinction in several campaigns, and subsequently practised as a doctor in the Landes, where he attained great eminence as a naturalist. Fabre often refers to him as the Wizard of the Landes. Cf. The Life of the Spider, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chap. i.; and The Life of the Fly: chap. i. —Translator's Note.

14

A genus of Burrowing Bee, the most numerous in species among the British Bees. —Translator's Note.

15

George Newport (1803-1854), an English surgeon and naturalist, president of the Entomological Society from 1844 to 1845 and an expert in insect anatomy. —Translator's Note.

16

Thursday is the weekly holiday in French schools. —Translator's Note.

17

Carolus Linnæus (Karl von Linné, 1707-1778), the celebrated Swedish botanist and naturalist, founder of the Linnæan system of classification. —Translator's Note.

18

Jean Baptiste Godart (1775-1823), the principal editor of L'Histoire naturelle des lépidoptères de France. —Translator's Note.

19

Baron Karl de Geer (1720-1778), the Swedish entomologist, author of Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire des insectes (1752-1778). —Translator's Note.

20

Cf. The Mason-bees: chaps. viii. and ix. —Translator's Note.

21

For the Wasp known as the Hairy Ammophila, who feeds her young on the Grey Worm, the caterpillar of the Turnip Moth, cf. The Hunting Wasps, chaps. xviii. to xx. —Translator's Note.