THE WEITIXGS OF M. FABRE. 123 



her by means of a straw to relinqiiisli it, M. Faljre succeeded in 

 possessing himself of about 100 Cu-rculios. Tlie insect to which he 

 dii-ected his attention is not the Cerceris Bupresticida, which attacks 

 indiscriminately all the Buprestes, but one of its congeners, and 

 more exclusive, apparently, in its tastes ; as all the Cui'culios he 

 examined belonged, vdila. one single exception, to the same species. 



It is difficult to see why, of four kinds of Cerceris, two should 

 make choice exclusively of Curculios, two of Buprestes ; thus restrict- 

 ing their chance of finding \dctims within such narrow limits : and 

 the total want of outward resemblance between Curculios and Bu- 

 prestes also raises the question why these two groups especially 

 are selected. As, however, we shall see hereafter, this problem has 

 been satisfactorily solved by M. Fabre. 



After what has been written on the subject by M. Dufour, it is 

 needless to state that the Curculios examined by M. Fabre, tliough 

 deprived absolutely and entirely of aU power of motion, were still 

 not dead. In fact, from their freshness of colour, suppleness of mem- 

 brane, and general internal condition, it was almost impossible to 

 realize their being utterly incapable of the least movement. Througli 

 heat sufficient to have di*ied up any animal which had suffered ordi- 

 nary death, through damp wliich would have caused rapid decomposi- 

 tion, M. Fabre preserved these beetles in paper cornets or in glass 

 tubes : and after a fortnight the viscera were as fresh, the act of dis- 

 section was as easy, as they would have been in the case of a living 

 creature. In the face of facts like these, we cainiot possibly attribute 

 this immoveable state to antiseptic agency alone. Life is there, but 

 numbed, as it were, and paralysed : a miracle beyond the power of 

 chloroform or aether to perform, having its origin in the mysterious 

 laws of the nervous system. 



In this state of vegetation the animal functions still faintly exert 

 themselves : digestion continues as long as the stomach contains 

 food. By the aid of benzine vapour and of a voltaic battery, M. Fabre 

 succeeded in obtaining some feeble movements of the legs and antennae, 

 even up to the fifteenth day after this extraordinary suspension of 

 muscular power had taken place ; whereas, the same experiments, 

 when made upon beetles dead, in the true sense of the word, only two 

 liours, were productive of no result whatever. 



These facts, indeed, militate strongly against the supposition that 

 the Curculios are dead, and merely preserved by some means from 

 natural decay. The weapon with which they are overcome is of 

 course the venomous sting of the Cerceris : but how can this pene- 

 trate througli the coat of mail worn by the Curcuho ? in which, more- 

 over, there is no trace of injury or wound to be discovered after the 

 combat is over. The key to this mystery has been obtained by M. 

 Fabre, after an amount of patient investigation which would have 

 wearied out a less persevering and intelligent observer. 



With great difficulty, and after a long search in fields and hedges, 

 he succeeded in captiu-ing several live specimens of Ciu'culio, which 



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