The Processionary : Meteorology 



From the sum of my observations it appears 

 that the Pine Processionary is eminently sensi- 

 tive to atmospheric vicissitudes, an excel- 

 lent quality, having regard to his way of 

 life in the sharp winter nights. He fore- 

 sees the storm which would imperil his 

 excursions. 



His capacity for scenting bad weather very 

 soon won the confidence of the household. 

 When we had to go into Orange to renew our 

 provisions, it became the rule to consult him 

 the night before; and, according to his ver- 

 dict, we went or stayed at home. His oracle 

 never deceived us. In the same way, simple 

 folk that we were, we used in the old days 

 to interrogate the Dor-beetle,^ another 

 doughty nocturnal worker. But, a little de- 

 moralized by imprisonment in a cage and ap- 

 parently devoid of any special sensitive ap- 

 paratus, performing his evolutions, moreover, 

 in the mild autumn evenings, the celebrated 

 Dung-beetle could never rival the Pine Cater- 

 pillar, who is activ^e during the roughest sea- 

 son of the year and endowed, as everything 



'^Geotriipes siercorarius, a large Dung-beetle. Cf. The 

 Life and Lo-ve of tlie Insect, by J. Henri Fabre, translated 

 by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chap, ix — Translator's 

 Note. 



107 



