Social life in the insect world / by J. H. Fabre.

  • Fabre, Jean-Henri, 1823-1915.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Social life in the insect world / by J. H. Fabre. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and equally knotty, hâve slipped out as easily as though they were smooth, slippery objects sliding out of a loose sheath. The method of extraction is still more astonishing in the case of the hind-legs. It is now, however, the turn of the front and inter- mediate pairs of legs. They pull out of their gauntlets and leggings without the least hitch ; nothing is torn, nothing buckled ; the outer skin is not even crumpled, and ail the tissues remain in their natural position. The insect is now hanging from the dôme of the cover solely by the claws of the long hind-legs. It hangs in an almost vertical position, the head downwards, swinging like a pendulum if I touch the cover. Four tiny, steely claws are its only support. If they gave or unclasped themselves the insect would be lost, as it is as yet unable to unfurl its enormous wings ; but even had the wings emerged they could not grip the air in time to save the créature from the conséquences of a fall. But the four claws hold fast ; life, before withdrawing from them, left them rigidly contracted, so that they should support without yielding the struggles and withdrawals to follow. Now the wing-covers and wings emerge. These are four narrow strips, vaguely seamed and furrowed, like strings of rolled tissue-paper. They are barely a quarter of their final length. They are so soft that they bend under their own weight, and hang down the creature's sides in the reverse of their normal position. The free extremities, which normally point backwards, are now pointing towards the cricket’s head as it hangs reversed. The organs of future flight are like four leaves of withered foliage shattered by a terrifie rainstorm.