The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles 



my engagements at the college ^ do not allow 

 me to absent myself for the purpose of 

 repairing to Carpentras, where she is so 

 abundant. In hunting for cells provisioned 

 with honey I thus lose a good part of the 

 month of May; however, I end by finding 

 some which are newly sealed and which be- 

 long to the right Anthophora. I open these 

 cells with the feverish impatience of a sorely- 

 tried longing. All goes well : they are half- 

 full of fluid, dark, nauseating honey, with 

 the Bee's lately-hatched larva floating on the 

 surface. This larva is removed; and taking 

 a thousand precautions, I lay one or more 

 Sitares on the surface of the honey. In other 

 cells I leave the Bee's larva and insert Sitares, 

 placing them sometimes on the honey and 

 sometimes on the inner wall of the cell or 

 simply at the entrance. Lastly, all the cells 

 thus prepared are put in glass tubes, which 

 enable me to observe them readily, without 

 fear of disturbing my famished guests at their 

 meal. 



But what am I saying? Their meal? 

 There is no meal! The Sitares, placed at 

 the entrance to a cell, far from seeking to 



1 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. 



54 



