Change of Diet 



the little world which swarms around us. 



To each its mess. The cabbage Pieris 

 consumes the pungent leaves of the Cruciferae 

 as the food of her infancy; the Silkworm 

 disdains any foliage other than that of the 

 mulberry-tree. The Spurge Hawk-moth re- 

 quires the caustic milk-sap of the tithymals: 

 the Corn-weevil the grain of wheat ; the Pea- 

 weevil, the seeds of the leguminosae; the 

 Balaninus ^ the hazel-nut, the chestnut, the 

 acorn ; the Brachycera ^ the clove of garlic. 

 Each has its diet, each its plant; and each 

 plant has its customary guests. Their rela- 

 tions are so precise that in many cases one 

 might determine the insect by the vegetable 

 which supports it, or the vegetable by the 

 Insect. 



If you know the lily, you may name as a 

 Crioceris^ the tiny scarlet Scarabaeid that 

 inhabits it and peoples its leaves with larvae 

 which keep themselves cool beneath an over- 

 coat of ordure. If you know the Crioceris, 

 you may name as a lily the plant which she 

 devastates. It will not perhaps be the com- 



1 A genus of Beetles including the Acorn-weevil, the 

 Nut-weevil and others. — Translator's Note. 



2 A division of Flies including the Gad-flies and Rob- 

 ber-flies. — Translator's Note. 



* For the Lily-beetle, or Crioceris merdigera, cf. The 

 Gloiv-iuorm and Other Beetles, by J. Henri Fabre, trans- 

 lated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chaps, xvi. and 

 xvii. — Translator's Note. 



167 



