More Beetles 



quality in the insect class, which is but too 

 prone to forget its matrimonial obligations. 



How do they recognize each other? We 

 recognize one another by our facial features, 

 which vary so greatly in different individuals, 

 notwithstanding their common likeness. 

 They, to tell the truth, have no faces; there 

 is no expression beneath their rigid masks. 

 Besides, things happen in profound dark- 

 ness. The sense' of sight therefore does not 

 count at all. 



We recognize one another by our speech, 

 by the tone, the inflection of our voices. 

 They are dumb, deprived of all means of 

 vocal appeal. There remains the sense of 

 smell. Minotaurus finding his mate makes 

 me think of my friend Tom, the house-dog, 

 who, when the moon stirs his emotions, lifts 

 his nose in the air, sniffs the breeze and 

 jumps the garden-walls, eager to obey the 

 remote and magical summons; he puts me in 

 mind of the Great Peacock Moth,^ who 

 hastens from miles afield to pay his respects 

 to the newly-hatched maid. 



The comparison, however, is far from 

 being complete, the Dog and the big Moth 



1 Cf. The Life of the Caterpillar, by J. Henri Fabre, 

 translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chap. xi. — 

 Translator's Note. 



84 



