Chapter 19

THE CLYTHRAE: THE EGG

Let us leave the long-armed and short-armed to pursue their amorous contests as they please and come to the egg, the main object of my insect-rearing. The Taxicorn Clythra is the first in the field; I see her at working during the last days of May. A most singular and disconcerting batch of eggs is hers! Is it really a group of eggs? I hesitate until I surprise the mother using her hind-legs to finish extracting the strange germ which issues slowly and perhaps laboriously from her oviduct.

It is indeed the Taxicorn Clythra's batch. Assembled in bundles of one to three dozen and each fastened by a slender transparent thread slightly longer than itself, the eggs form a sort of inverted umbel, which dangles sometimes from the trelliswork of the cover, sometimes from the leaves of the twigs that provide the grub with food. The bunch of grains quivers at the least breath.

We know the egg-cluster of the Hemerobius, the object of so many mistakes to the untrained observer. The little Lace-winged Fly with the gold eggs sets up on a leaf a group of long, tiny columns as fine as a spider's thread, each bearing an egg as a capital. The whole resembles pretty closely a tuft of some long-stemmed mildew. Remember also the Eumenes' hanging egg,[1] which swings at the end of a thread, thus protecting the grub when it takes its first mouthfuls of the heap of dangerous game. The Taxicorn Clythra provides us with a third example of eggs fitted with suspension-threads, but so far nothing has given me an inkling of the function or the use of this string. Though the mother's intentions escape me, I can at least describe her work in some detail.

[Footnote 1: Cf. _The Mason-wasps_: chap. i.--_Translator's Note_.]

The eggs are smooth, coffee-coloured and shaped like a thimble. If you hold them to the light, you see in the thickness of their skin five circular zones, darker than the rest and producing almost the same effect as the hoops of a barrel. The end attached to the suspension-thread is slightly conical; the other is lopped off abruptly and the section is hollowed into a circular mouth. A good lens shows us inside this, a little below the rim, a fine white membrane, as smooth as the skin of a drum.

In addition, from the edge of the orifice there rises a wide membranous tab, whitish and delicate, which might be taken for a raised lid. Nevertheless there is no raising of a lid after the eggs are laid. I have seen the egg leave the oviduct; it is then what it will be later, but lighter in colour. No matter: I cannot believe that so complicated a machine can make its way, with all sail set, through the maternal straits. I imagine that the lid-like appendage remains lowered, closing the mouth, until the moment when the egg sees the light. Then and not till then does it rise.

Guided by the rather less complex structure of the eggs of the other Clythrae and of the Cryptocephali, I think of trying to take the strange germ to pieces; and I succeed after a fashion. Under the coffee-coloured sheath, which forms a little five-hooped barrel, is a white membrane. This is what we see through the mouth and what I compared with the skin of a drum. I recognize it as the regulation tunic, the usual envelope of any insect's egg. The rest, the little brown barrel, broached at one end and bearing a raised lid, must therefore be an accessory integument, a sort of exceptional shell, of which I do not as yet know any other example.

The Long-legged Clythra and the Four-spotted Clythra know nothing of packing their eggs in long-stemmed bundles. In June, from the height of the branches in which they are grazing, both of them carelessly allow their eggs to drop to the ground, one by one, here and there, at random and at long intervals, without giving the least thought to their installation. They might be little grains of excrement, unworthy of interest and ejected at hazard. The egg-factory and the dung-factory scatter their products with the same indifference.

Nevertheless, let us bring the lens to bear upon the minute particle so contumeliously treated. It is a miracle of elegance. In both species of Clythrae the eggs have the form of truncated ellipsoids, measuring about a millimetre in length.[2] The Long-legged Clythra's are a very dark brown and remind one of a thimble, a comparison which is the more exact inasmuch as they are dented with quadrangular pits, arranged in spiral series which cross one another with exquisite precision.

[Footnote 2: .039 inch.--_Translator's Note_.]

Those of the Four-spotted Clythra are pale in colour. They are covered with convex scales, overlapping in diagonal rows, ending in a point at the lower extremity, which is free and more or less askew. This collection of scales has rather the appearance of a hop-cone. Surely a very curious egg, ill-adapted to gliding gently through the narrow passages of the ovaries. I feel sure that it does not bristle in this fashion when it descends the delicate natal sheath; it is near the end of the oviduct that it receives its coat of scales.

In the case of the three Cryptocephali reared in my cages, the eggs are laid later; their season is the end of June and July. As in the Clythrae, there is the same lack of maternal care, the same hap-hazard dropping of the seeds from the centaury-blossoms and the ilex-twigs. The general form of the egg is still that of a truncated ellipsoid. The ornaments vary. In the eggs of the Golden Cryptocephalus and the Ilex Cryptocephalus they consist of eight flattened, wavy ribs, winding corkscrew-wise; in those of the Two-spotted Cryptocephalus they take the form of spiral rows of pits.

What can this envelope be, so remarkable for its elegance, with its spiral mouldings, its thimble-pits and its hop-scales? A few little accidental facts put me on the right track. To begin with, I acquire the certainty that the egg does not descend from the ovaries as I find it on the ground. Its ornamentation, incompatible with a gentle gliding movement, had already told me as much; I now have a clear proof.

Mingled with the normal eggs of both the Golden Cryptocephalus and the Long-legged Clythra, I find others which differ in no respect from the usual run of insects' eggs. The eggs are perfectly smooth, with a soft, pale-yellow shell. As the cage contains no other insects than the Clythra under consideration or the Cryptocephalus, I cannot be mistaken as to the origin of my finds.

Moreover, if any doubts remained, they would be dispelled by the following evidence: in addition to the bare, yellow eggs there are some whose base is set in a tiny brown, pitted cup, obviously the work of either the Two-spotted Cryptocephalus or the Long-legged Clythra, according to the cage, but unfinished work, which half-clothed the egg, as it left the ovaries, and then, when the dress-material ran short, or something went wrong with the machinery, allowed it to cross the outer threshold in the likeness of an acorn fixed in its cup.

Nothing could be prettier than this yellow egg, standing in its artistic egg-cup. Nor could anything tell us more conclusively where the jewel is manufactured. It is in the cloaca, the chamber common to the oviduct and the intestine, that the bird wraps its egg in a calcareous shell, often decorating it with magnificent hues: olive-green for the Nightingale, sky-blue for the Wheatear, soft pink for the Icterine Warbler. It is in the cloaca also that the Clythra and the Cryptocephalus produce the elegant armour of their eggs.

It remains to decide upon the material employed. From its horny appearance there is reason to believe that the little barrel of the Taxicorn Clythra and the scales of the Four-spotted Clythra are the products of a special secretion; and, now that it is too late, I much regret that I neglected to look for the apparatus yielding this secretion in the neighbourhood of the cloaca. As for the thing so prettily wrought by the Long-legged Clythra and the Cryptocephali, let us admit without false shame that it is made of faecal matter.

The proof is furnished by certain specimens, by no means rare in the Golden Cryptocephalus, in which the customary brown is replaced by an unmistakable green, the sign of a vegetable pulp. In course of time, these green eggs turn brown and become like the others, no doubt by reason of an oxidization which alters the natural qualities of the digestive product still further. The egg, entering the cloaca in a soft and utterly naked state, receives an artistic coat of the intestinal dross, even as the Hen's egg is covered by a shell formed of the chalky secretions.

_Materiem superabat opus, nam Mulciber illic AEquora celerat_,

said Ovid, in his description of the Palace of the Sun. The poet had precious metals and gems wherewith to build his imaginary marvel. What has the Clythra wherewith to achieve its ideal jewel? It has the shameful material whose name is banished from decent speech. And which is the Mulciber, the Vulcan, the artist-engraver that engraves the covering of the egg so prettily? It is the terminal sewer. The cloaca rolls the material, flutes it, twists it into spirals, decks it with chains of little pits and makes it up into a scaly suit of armour, showing how nature laughs at our paltry standards of value and how well able she is to convert the sordid into the beautiful.

In the bird, the egg-shell is a temporary defensive cell which at hatching-time is broken and abandoned and is henceforth useless. Made of horny matter or stercoral paste, the shell of the Clythra and the Cryptocephalus is, on the contrary, a permanent refuge, which the insect will never leave so long as it remains a larva. Here the grub is born with a ready-made garment, of rare elegance and an exact fit, a garment which it only has to enlarge, little by little, in the original manner described above. The shell, shaped like a little barrel or thimble, is open in front. There is nothing therefore to break, nothing to cast aside at the moment of hatching, except perhaps the actual envelope of the egg. Directly this membrane is burst, the tiny creature is free, with a handsome carved jacket, a legacy from its mother.

Let us indulge in a crazy dream and imagine young birds which keep the egg-shell intact, save for an opening through which they pass their head, and which, all their lives long, remain clad in this shell, on condition that they themselves enlarge it as they grow. This absurd dream is realized by our grub: it is dressed in the shell of its egg, expanded by degrees as the grub itself grows bigger.

In July all my collection of eggs are hatched, each isolated in a large cup covered with a slip of glass which will moderate the evaporation. What an interesting family! My vermin are swarming amid the miscellaneous vegetable refuse with which I have furnished the premises. They all move along with tiny steps, dragging their shells, which they carry lifted on a slant; they come halfway out and suddenly pop in again; they tumble over if they merely attempt to scale a sprig of moss, pick themselves up again, forge ahead and cast about at random.

Hunger, we can no longer doubt, is the cause of this agitation. What shall I give my famished nurselings? They are vegetarians: there can be no doubt whatever about that; but this is not enough to settle the bill of fare. What would happen under the natural conditions? Rearing the insects in cages, I find the eggs scattered at random on the ground. The mother drops them carelessly, here and there, from the top of the bough where she is refreshing herself by soberly notching some tender leaf. The Taxicorn Clythra fits a long stalk to her eggs and fixes them in clusters on the foliage. While I cannot yet make up my mind, in the absence of direct observation, whether the new-born larva cuts the suspension-thread itself, or whether the thread is broken merely as a result of drying up, sooner or later these eggs are lying on the ground, like the others.

The same thing must happen outside my cages: the eggs of the Clythrae and the Cryptocephali are scattered over the ground beneath the tree or plant on which the adult feeds.

Now what do we find under the shelter of the oak? Turf, dead leaves, more or less pickled by decay, dry twigs cased in lichens, broken stones with cushions of moss and, lastly, mould, the final residue of vegetable matters wrought upon by time. Under the tufts of the centaury on which the Golden Cryptocephalus browses lies a black bed of the miscellaneous refuse of the plant.

I try a little of everything, but nothing answers my expectations very positively. I observe, nevertheless, that a few disdainful mouthfuls are taken, a little bit here, a little bit there, enough to tell me the nature of the first layers which the grub adds to its natal sheath. With the exception of the Taxicorn Clythra, whose egg, with its suspension-stalk, seems to denote rather special habits, I see my several charges begin to prolong their shell with a brown paste, similar in appearance to that with whose manufacture and employment we are already familiar.

Discouraged by a food which does not suit them and perhaps also tried by a season of exceptional drouth, my young potters soon relinquish their task; they die after adding a shallow rim to their pots.

Only the Long-legged Clythra thrives and repays me amply for my troublesome nursing. I provide it with chips of old bark taken from the first tree to hand, the oak, the olive, the fig-tree and many others. I soften them by steeping them for a short time in water. The cork-like crusts, however, are not what my boarders eat. The actual food, the butter on the bread, is on the surface. There is a little here of all that the first beginnings of vegetable life add to old tree-trunks, all that breaks up decrepit age to turn it into perpetual youth.

There are tufts of moss, hardly a twelfth of an inch in height, which were sleeping droughtily under the merciless sun of the dog-days, but which a bath in a glass of water awakens at once. They now display their ring of green leaflets, brightened up and restored to life for a few hours. There are leprous efflorescences, with their white or yellow dust; tiny lichens radiating in ash-grey straps and covered with glaucous, white-edged shields, great round eyes that seem to gaze from the depths of the limbo in which dead matter comes to life again. There are collemas, which, after a shower, become dark and bloated and shake like jellies; sphaerias, whose pustules stand out like ebony teats, full of myriads of tiny sacs, each containing eight pretty seeds. A glance through the microscope at the contents of one of these teats, a speck only just visible to the eye, reveals an astounding world: an infinity of procreative wealth in an atom. Ah, what a beautiful thing life is, even on a chip of rotten bark no bigger than a finger-nail! What a garden! What a treasure-house!

This is the best pasture put to the test. My Clythrae graze upon it, gathering in dense herds at the most luxuriant spots. One would take this heap for pinches of some brown, modelled seed or other, the snapdragon's, for instance; but these particular seeds push and sway; if one of them moves the least bit, the shells all clash together. Others wander about, in search of a good place, staggering and tumbling under the weight of the overcoat; they wander at random through that great and spacious world, the bottom of my cup.

Not a fortnight has elapsed before a strip, built up on the rim, has doubled the length of the Long-legged Clythra's shell, in order to maintain the capacity of the earthenware jar in proportion to the size of the grub, which has been growing from day to day. The recent portion, the work of the larva, is very plainly distinguishable from the original shell, the product of the mother; it is smooth over its whole extent, whereas the rest is ornamented with tiny holes arranged in spiral rows.

Planed away inside as it becomes too tight, the jar grows wider and at the same time longer. The dust taken from it, once more kneaded into mortar, is reapplied outside, more or less everywhere, and forms a rubble under which the original beauties end by disappearing. The neatly-pitted masterpiece is swamped by a layer of brown plasterwork; not always entirely, however, even when the structure reaches its final dimensions. If we pass an attentive lens between the two humps at the lower end, we very often see, encrusted in the earthy mass, the remains of the shell of the egg. This is the potter's mark. The arrangement of the spiral ridges, the number and the shape of the pits enable us almost to read the name of the maker, Clythra or Cryptocephalus.

From the very first I could not imagine the worker in ceramic paste designing its own pottery by drafting the first outlines. My doubts were justified. The grubs of the Clythra and the Cryptocephalus possess a maternal legacy in the shape of a shell, a garment which they have only to enlarge. They are born the owners of a layette which becomes the groundwork of their trousseau. They increase it, without, however, imitating its artistic elegance. A more vigorous age discards the laces in which the mother delights to clothe the new-born child.

INDEX

A

Acarus, 33, 44

Adder, 294, 296

_AEgosomus scabricornis_, 317

_Ammophila hirsuta_ (Hairy Ammophila), 96, 304

Andrena, 55, 85

Anoxia, 266

Ant, 294

_Anthaxia nitidula_, 216

Anthidium (_see also_ the varieties below), 180, 236, 280

_Anthidium bellicosum_, 180

_Anthidium scapulare_, 179

Anthophora (_see also_ the varieties below), 28, 30-34, 37, 39-41, 43-45, 53-61, 63-71, 73-75, 77-82, 84, 88, 90, 93, 97, 100, 103-105, 107-110, 114, 126, 128, 131, 139, 151, 163, 176, 179

_Anthophora parietina_, 28, 86, 90

_Anthophora personata_ (_see_ Masked Anthophora), 86

_Anthophora pilipes_ (_see_ Hairy-footed Anthophora), 29, 64, 84, 86, 106

_Anthophora retusa_, 86

Anthrax (_see A. sinuata_), 30, 37, 158, 199

_Anthrax sinuata_, 30, 35

Anthrenus (_see also A. musaeorum_), 33, 44

_Anthrenus musaeorum_, 33

Ant-lion, 13, 366, 368

Asparagus-beetle, Asparagus-grub (_see also_ Field Crioceris, Twelve-spotted Crioceris), 436, 439

Audubon, John James, 348, 350

Azure Hoplia, 274

B

Bacon-beetle (_see_ Dermestes), 294

Banded Epeira, 284

Bear (_see also_ Cave-bear), 359-360, 400, 447

Beauregard, Dr., 161-162

Bee (_see also_ Bumble-bee, Hive-bee, Mason-bee and the varieties), 28-30, 34, 45, 53-54, 56-57, 59, 60-65, 67, 70-71, 77, 79, 82, 85, 86, 88-90, 92, 97, 99, 101, 105, 106-108, 110, 128, 141-142, 144, 154, 163, 176, 178, 278, 298

Bee-louse, 85

Beetle, _passim_, 7, 28, 31

Beetle's Gamasus, 314

_Belle_ (_see_ Spurge Hawk-moth), 283

Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Jacques Henri, 235

Bison Onitis, 245, 262

Blackbeetle, 388

Blackbeetle of the Sun (_see_ Sacred Beetle)

Black-bellied Lycosa (_see_ Black-bellied Tarantula), 267

Black-bellied Tarantula, 267

Black Buprestis (_see_ Cloudy Buprestis), 386

Blatta (_see_ Blackbeetle), 388

Blister-beetle (_see also_ Cantharides, Cerocoma, Mylabris, Zonitis), 154, 161, 164

Bluebottle, 95-96, 100

Bolbites (_see also B. onitoides_), 243, 268

_Bolbites onitoides_, 242

Bolboceras, 388

Bombardier Beetle, 358

Brachinus (_see_ Bombardier Beetle), 358

Brillat-Savarin (Anthelme), 2

Brilliant Buprestis, 387

Broken Bulimus, 456

Bronze Buprestis, 212

Bulimus (_see also_ Broken Bulimus), 451

Bumble-bee, 71

Buprestis (_see also_ the varieties below), 186, 188, 212, 214-217, 219, 221, 224, 234, 274, 292-293, 381-382, 384, 386

_Buprestis aenea_ (_see_ Bronze Buprestis), 212

_Buprestis octoguttata_ (_see_ Eight-spotted Buprestis), 215

_Buprestis tenebrionis_ (_see_ Cloudy Buprestis), 385, 387

Burnt Zonitis, 179-181

Burying-beetle, 296, 306, 314, 337

_Buthus occitanus_ (_see_ Languedocian Scorpion), 402

Butterfly, 100, 102, 177, 274

C

Calicurgus (_see_ Ringed Calicurgus), 267

_Calliphora vomitoria_ (_see_ Bluebottle), 95

_Calosoma sycophanta_, 356-357

Camel, 269

Cantharides, 164, 166, 169-170, 290

_Canthon bispinus_, 261

_Capnodis tenebrionis_ (_see_ Cloudy Buprestis), 381

Capricorn (_see also_ the varieties below), 186-189, 193, 195-199, 203-204, 209, 220, 237, 380, 439

Capricorn of the Cherry-tree (_see Cerambyx cerdo_), 207-208, 210-211

Capricorn of the Oak (_see_ Capricorn), 209-211

Carabus (_see also_ Golden Carabus, Purple Carabus), 274, 353, 355-357, 363-364, 376

Carrion-beetle (_see_ Silpha), 294

Cat, 307

Cave-bear, 450

Cellar-beetle, 294, 297, 387-388

Cerambyx (_see_ the varieties below), 188, 191, 194, 197, 199, 201, 204, 205, 210, 212, 216

_Cerambyx cerdo_, 207-208

_Cerambyx miles_ (_see_ Capricorn), 187

Cerceris, 304

Cerocoma (_see also_ Schaeffer's Cerocoma, Schreber's Cerocoma), 160-161, 163, 169-170, 182-183

Cetonia (_see also_ Golden Cetonia, _C. floricola_), 101, 189, 266, 274, 291, 388

_Cetonia aurata_ (_see_ Golden Cetonia), 101

_Cetonia floricola_, 291

Chalcid (_see also_ Gall-fly), 428-429

Chalicodoma (_see_ Mason-bee), 136, 179

Chicken, 430

Chinese Carp, 306

_Chrysobothrys chrysostigma_, 217

Chrysomela (_see_ Golden Apple-beetle), 274, 388

Cicada, 292, 366-368

Clairville, 298, 319, 325

Cleonus, 388

Clerus (_see also_ the varieties below), 33

_Clerus alvearius_, 33

_Clerus apiarius_, 33

Cloudy Buprestis, 382, 397, 399

Clythra (_see also_ the varieties below), 451-452, 456, 458-462, 465, 468-471, 473, 475, 477

_Clythra longimana_, 462, 467

_Clythra longipes_ (Long-legged Clythra), 459, 462, 466, 468-469, 474, 476

_Clythra quadripunctata_ (_see_ Four-spotted Clythra), 459

_Clythra sexmaculata_ (_see_ Six-spotted Clythra), 462

_Clythra taxicornis_ (_see_ Taxicorn Clythra), 460

Clytus (see the varieties below), 218

_Clytus arietis_, 218

_Clytus arvicola_, 218

_Clytus tropicus_, 218

Coccinella (Ladybird), 388

Cockchafer (_see also_ Common Cockchafer, Pine-chafer), 355

Cockroach (_see_ Blackbeetle), 388

Coelioxys, 94, 95

Common Cockchafer, 368

Common Wasp, 71

Condillac, Etienne Bonnot de, Abbe de Mureaux, 185, 194

Confucius, 408

Copris (_see also_ Lunary Copris, Spanish Copris), 237, 243, 258, 262, 266, 269, 289, 310, 347

Cotton-bee (_see also Anthidium scapulare_), 180, 270

Cow, 243, 269

Crane-fly, 430

Cricket (_see also_ Italian Cricket), 237, 275, 279, 316

_Criocephalus ferus_, 217

Crioceris (_see also_ the varieties below), 411-414, 418, 420-421, 423-424, 428, 432, 435, 441-442, 444-445, 450

_Crioceris campestris_ (_see_ Field Crioceris), 418

_Crioceris duodecimpunctata_ (_see_ Twelve-spotted Crioceris), 418

_Crioceris merdigera_ (_see_ Lily-beetle), 411

_Crioceris paracenthesia_, 444

Cryptocephalus (_see also_ the varieties below), 451, 460, 462, 465, 467, 468-469, 471, 477

_Cryptocephalus bipunctatus_ (Two-spotted Cryptocephalus), 460, 467-468, 473

_Cryptocephalus ilicis_ (_see_ Ilex Cryptocephalus), 460

Cyclostome, 8

D

_Darboun_ (_see_ Mole), 302

Decticus (_see also_ White-faced Decticus), 237, 281-282, 316

Dermestes, 294-295, 297

Diogenes, 451

Dog, 195, 251

Donkey, 320

_Drilus maroccanus_, 8, 9

Drone-fly, 95-96, 100

Duck, 396

Dufour, Jean Marie Leon, 55, 85, 106

Dung-beetle, 239-240, 242, 245, 249-253, 263, 268-274, 288, 317, 325, 347

E

Eight-spotted Buprestis, 215

Epeira (_see_ Banded Epeira), 284

Ephippiger of the Vines, 282

_Eristalis tenax_ (_see_ Drone-fly), 95

Eumenes, 464

F

Fabre, Emile, the author's son, 145-146

Fabre, Mlle. Anna, the author's daughter, 391

Fabre, Paul, the author's son, 303, 309

Field Crioceris, 418, 425, 433, 442

Field-mouse, 296, 304, 452

Flamingo, 293

Fly (_see also_ House-fly), 12, 30, 95, 101-102, 177, 199, 294, 360, 371, 375, 378-380, 420, 423, 425, 435-436

Foamy Cicadella, 439

Four-spotted Clythra, 459, 462, 466-467, 469

Four-spotted Mylabris, 162, 164, 173

Frog, 296, 299, 300, 332, 334, 337

G

Gall-fly, 428

Geer, Baron Karl de, 87

Geotrupes (_see also_ Mimic Geotrupes, Stercoraceous Geotrupes), 237, 245, 291-292, 314, 344, 347, 386

Giant Scarites, 362, 381-382, 384, 396, 398

Gleditsch, Johann Gottlieb, 299, 334, 337

Glow-worm, 1, 3, 4, 7-8, 10, 12-27

Gnat, 195, 269, 420, 430

Godart, Jean Baptiste, 87

Golden Apple-beetle, 388

Golden Beetle, 353, 355

Golden Carabus, 355

Golden Cetonia, 101

Golden Cryptocephalus, 460, 467-468, 470, 473

Golden Rose-chafer (_see_ Golden Cetonia), 101

Goldfish (_see_ Chinese Carp), 306

Goose, 396-397

Grasshopper (_see also_ Green Grasshopper), 154, 280, 282, 461

Great Capricorn (_see_ Capricorn), 379

Great Peacock Moth, 356

Great Water-beetle, 278

Greenfinch, 360, 396

Green Grasshopper, 237, 357

Grey Worm (_see_ Turnip Moth), 96

Griffiths, A. B., 292

Gromphas (Lacordaire's Gromphas), 244, 247, 256

Ground-beetle (_see_ Carabus), 293, 313, 447

Guinea-fowl, 395-396

Gymnopleurus, 289, 347

H

Hairy-footed Anthophora, 64, 106

Half-spotted Scarab, 369

Halictus, 176

Heliocantharus (_see_ Sacred Beetle), 271

_Helix aspersa_, 12

_Helix explanata_, 362

_Helix variabilis_, 3-4

Hemerobius (_see_ Lace-winged Fly), 463

Hen, 251, 257, 396, 470

Hermit-crab, 446

Hive-bee, 71, 100

Hoplia (_see also_ Azure Hoplia), 274, 388

Hornet, 68

Horse, 269

House-fly, 420

Humming-bird, 274, 293

Hunting Wasp, 7, 96, 252, 275, 278, 280, 304

Hydrophilus (_see_ Great Water-beetle), 278-279

I

Icterine Warbler, 469

Ilex Cryptocephalus, 460, 467

Italian Cricket, 236

J

Job, 187

Judulien, Brother, 238

K

Kingfisher, 293

Kitten, 391

Kung (_see_ Confucius), 409

L

Lace-winged Fly, 464

Lacordaire, Jean Theodore, 244, 298

La Fontaine, Jean de, 409

Lamb, 155

Lamellicorn, 129

Lampyris, _L. noctiluca_ (_see_ Glow-worm), 1-3, 5-6, 8-9, 11-12, 15

Land-snail (_see_ Bulimus, Helix, Snail), 451

Languedocian Scorpion, 402

Lark, 25

Latreille's Osmia, 179

Leaf-cutter (_see_ Megachile), 180, 236

Lily-beetle, 411, 413, 418, 424, 434, 436, 439, 440, 445-446

Lizard, 292, 294, 296, 332, 345

Llama, 269

Loach, 392-393

Locust, 154, 161, 282, 360, 393, 461

Louse, 59, 85, 106, 128, 144, 320

Lunary Copris, 240, 262

Lycosa (_see_ Black-bellied Tarantula), 267

M

Macleay (William Sharp), 271

Maistre, Xavier de, 236, 238

Malachius, 100

Mantis (_see_ Praying Mantis), 145-146, 149, 150-154, 160-161, 163, 316

Masked Anthophora, 86

Mason-bee (_see also_ Anthophora and the varieties below), 72, 75, 86, 93, 104, 136

Mason-bee of the Sheds, 136

Mason-bee of the Walls, 136

Megachile (_see also M. sericans_), 187, 236, 269

_Megachile sericans_, 180

Megatherium, 269

Megathopa (_see also_ the varieties below), 242, 268

_Megathopa bicolor_, 241

_Megathopa intermedia_, 241

Melecta, 94-95

_Melecta armata_, 36

Meloe (_see_ Oil-beetle and the varieties below), 56, 84-86, 88-89, 91, 93-97, 99-101, 103-108, 128, 134-135, 141-143, 157

_Meloe cicatricosus_, 86, 104, 106, 128, 149

_Meloe proscarabaeus_, 87

Meloid (_see also_ Blister-beetle, Cantharides, Cerocoma, Mylabris, Zonitis), 135, 141, 144-146, 149, 154, 157-158, 160-163, 165-166, 174, 179, 183

Melosoma (_Omocrates abbreviatus_), 387

Miall, Bernard, viii

Midge, 420, 422-424, 430

Mimic Geotrupes, 273, 291

Mite, 103

Mole, 252, 294-297, 301, 304-310, 313, 319, 328-332, 335-337, 341, 345-346

Mosquito, 447

Mouse (_see also_ Field-mouse, Shrew-mouse), 298, 306, 314, 319-326, 333-334, 338-343

Mylabris (_see also_ Four-spotted Mylabris, Twelve-spotted Mylabris), 160, 171, 173, 176

N

Narbonne Lycosa (_see_ Black-bellied Tarantula), 267

Necrophorus (_see_ Burying-beetle, _N. vestigator_), 251, 296-299, 301, 303-308, 310-311, 313-317, 319, 321, 324-329, 331-332, 335, 337-338, 341-343, 345-347

_Necrophorus vestigator_, 301

Newport, George, 56, 85-87, 89, 91-92, 105-106, 108, 130, 133

Nightingale, 469

Nine-spotted Buprestis, 213, 387

O

Odynerus, 28

Oil-beetle, 56, 84-93, 101, 105-106, 109, 130, 132-135, 144, 146, 148, 151, 154-155, 173-174, 176-177, 182-183, 203

Onitis (_see also_ the varieties below), 242, 245, 264, 289

_Onitis bison_ (_see_ Bison Onitis), 245, 262

_Onitis Olivieri_ (Olivier's Onitis), 250

Onthophagus (_see also_ Oval Onthophagus), 252, 261, 273, 289

_Onthophagus ovatus_ (_see_ Oval Onthophagus), 252

Oryctes, _O. nasicornis_ (_see_ Rhinoceros Beetle), 266, 355

Osmia (_see also_ the varieties below), 32-34, 36-37, 56, 65, 108, 136, 138, 179, 186, 316

_Osmia Latreillii_ (_see_ Latreille's Osmia), 136

_Osmia tricornis_ (_see_ Three-horned Osmia), 31, 64, 136

_Osmia tridentata_ (_see_ Three-pronged Osmia), 136

Oval Onthophagus, 263

Ovid, 470

Owl (_see also_ Virginian Owl), 251

Ox, 240, 268-269, 355

P

Peacock, 293

Peacock Moth (_see_ Great Peacock Moth), 356

_Pediculus apis_ (_see_ Bee-louse), 85

Pelopaeus, 203, 266

Pepsis, 267

Phanaeus (_see_ the varieties below), 240, 258, 290, 292

_Phanaeus festivus_, 264

_Phanaeus Milon_, 249, 252, 254-256, 264-265

_Phanaeus splendidulus_ (Splendid Phanaeus), 239, 265, 268, 273, 289

Pigeon (_see also_ Wood-pigeon), 396

Pimelia (_P. bipunctata_), 363-364, 369, 376-377, 387

Pine-chafer, 355, 357, 368

Pompilus (_see_ Ringed Calicurgus), 267, 304

Praying Mantis, 155, 162, 236

_Procrustes coriaceus_, 353-354, 357

_Ptosima novemmaculata_ (_see_ Nine-spotted Buprestis), 213, 387

Purple Carabus, 353

R

Rabbit, 252, 341

Rat (Brown Rat, _see_ Sewer-rat), 312-313

Reaumur, Rene Antoine Ferchault de, 283, 320, 413, 416

Resin-bee (_see Anthidium bellicosum_), 180

Rhinoceros Beetle, 355-357

Rhynchites, 411

Ringed Calicurgus, 267

Rose-chafer (_see_ Cetonia, Golden Cetonia), 368

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 235

Rove-beetle (_see_ Staphylinus), 295

S

Sacred Beetle, 237, 241-242, 250-251, 258, 260, 262, 266, 269, 271, 288, 290-291, 325, 347, 376-377

Saperda (_see_ the varieties below), 212

_Saperda carcharias_ (_see_ Shagreen Saperda), 211

Saperda of the Poplar, 211

_Saperda scalaris_ (_see_ Scalary Saperda), 211

Saprinus, 295

Sapyga (_see_ Spotted Sapyga), 155

Saw-fly (_see_ Sirex), 223

Scalary Saperda, 211

Scarab (_see_ Half-spotted Scarab, Sacred Beetle), 271

Scarabaeus (_see_ Sacred Beetle), 289

Scarites (_see_ Giant Scarites, Smooth-skinned Scarites), 363, 365-368, 370, 372-373, 375, 378-380, 387

Schaeffer's Cerocoma, 160, 162-165

Schreber's Cerocoma, 161

Scolia, 155, 203, 266

Scorpion (_see also_ Languedocian Scorpion), 402-405, 407-408

Sea-snail, 446

Sewer-rat, 304

Shagreen Saperda, 211

Sheep, 243, 269

Shell-bearing Slug (_see_ Testacella), 354

Shrew-mouse, 296, 304

Silky Leaf-cutter (_see Megachile sericans_), 180

Silpha, 294-295, 297, 388

Sirex (_see also_ the varieties below), 223, 226-231, 234

_Sirex augur_, 223

_Sirex gigas_, 231

_Sirex juvencus_, 231

Sisyphus, 261-262, 347

Sitaris (_see also S. humeralis_), 31, 36-37, 39, 40, 43, 50-61, 63-67, 74-82, 85-88, 97-98, 105-107, 109-110, 114, 116, 118-120, 127-135, 138, 141-144, 146, 148, 151, 154, 157, 171, 173-174, 176-178, 182, 203, 439

_Sitaris humeralis_, 30, 58

Six-spotted Clythra, 462

Slug (_see also_ Testacella), 354

Smooth-skinned Scarites, 377, 396

Snail (_see also_ Bulimus, Helix), 3-6, 10-12, 14-15, 48, 353-355, 362, 447, 455

Snake, 304

Spanish Copris, 239, 241

Sparrow, 314, 341, 343, 360

Sphex (_see also_ White-banded Sphex, Yellow-winged Sphex), 203, 267, 278-279, 304

Spider, 30-31, 39, 44, 101-102, 177, 284-286

Spotted Sapyga, 155

Spurge Hawk-moth, 282, 287-288

Stag-beetle, 364

Staphylinus, 295

Stercoraceous Geotrupes, 273, 291, 385

_Stromatium strepens_, 218

Swallow, 430

T

Tachina, 421-424, 426, 428, 433, 435-436, 448

Tachytes (_see also T. tarsina_), 145-146, 149, 151-152, 154-155, 160-162, 164

_Tachytes tarsina_, 161

Tarantula (_see_ Black-bellied Tarantula), 267

Taxicorn Clythra, 460, 462-464, 469, 473-474

Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander, 7, 28, 30, 55, 189, 237, 266

Testacella, 354

Thomas the Apostle, Saint, 411

Three-horned Osmia, 64

Three-pronged Osmia, 233

Tick (_see also_ Beetle's Gamasus), 314

Triungulin of the Andrenae, Triungulinus (_see T. andrenetarum_), 56

_Triungulinus andrenetarum_, 85

Turkey, 348-350, 393-398

Turnip Moth, 96

Twelve-spotted Crioceris, 418, 425-426, 428-429, 434

Twelve-spotted Mylabris, 162, 164, 173-174, 178

U

Unarmed Zonitis, 181

V

Valery-Mayer, Professor, 250

_Vespa crabro_ (_see_ Hornet), 68

Virginian Owl, 350

W

Warbler (_see_ Icterine Warbler), 469

Wasp (_see also_ Common Wasp, Hunting Wasp and the other varieties), 7, 28, 69, 71, 145, 278, 298

Water-beetle (_see_ Great Water-beetle), 278

Weevil, 149, 157, 388, 411

Wheatear, 469

White-banded Sphex, 267

White-faced Decticus, 280, 357

White Scorpion (_see_ Languedocian Scorpion), 402, 404

Wolf, 155, 355

Wood-pigeon, 293

Y

Yellow-winged Sphex, 275

Z

Zonitis (_see also_ the varieties below), 138, 141-143, 148, 154, 164-165, 171, 179-180, 182-183

_Zonitis mutica_ (_see_ Unarmed Zonitis), 138, 164, 179, 181

_Zonitis praeusta_ (_see_ Burnt Zonitis), 179