The Tachytes 



Love of the Locust, in the broader sense 

 of the Orthopteron, an exclusive, intolerant 

 love, handed down from mother to daugh- 

 ter with a fidelity which the centuries fail to 

 impair, this, yes, this indeed depicts the 

 Tachytes with greater accuracy than a name 

 smacking of the race-course. The English- 

 man has his roast beef; the German his 

 sauerkraut; the Russian his caviare; the Ne- 

 apoHtan his macaroni; the Piedmontese his 

 polenta; the man of Carpentras his tian. 

 The Tachytes has her Locust. Her national 

 dish is also that of the Sphex, with whom I 

 boldly associate her. The methodical classi- 

 fier, who works in cemeteries and seems to 

 fly the living cities, keeps the two families 

 far removed from each other because of 

 considerations attaching to the nervures of 

 the wings and the joints of the palpi. At 

 the risk of passing for a heretic, I bring them 

 together at the suggestion of the menu-card. 



To my own knowledge, my part of the 

 country possesses five species, one and all ad- 

 dicted to a diet of Orthoptera. Panzer's 

 Tachytes {T. Panzeri, VAN DER LIND), 

 girdled with red at the base of the abdomen, 

 must be pretty rare. I surprise her from 

 time to time working on the hard roadside 

 banks and the trodden edges of the foot- 

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