PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE 



CHAPTER X 



MECHANISM OF LOVE 



//. Copulation (continued). Arthropodes. Scorpions. 

 Large aquatic crustaceans. Small crustaceans. The 

 hydradhne. Scutilary. Cockchafer. Butterflies. 

 Flies, etc. Variation of animals' sexual habits. 



AMONG insects, batrachians, and mollusks one finds the 

 most curious modes of fecundation and those furthest 

 removed from the usual mechanism of mammals; before 

 coming to that we will give a few examples, toward form- 

 ing an idea of the sexual habits of various species chosen 

 from the arthropodes. In scorpions, let us say, terrestrial 

 representatives of aquatic crustaceans: the two sexes are 

 identical, genital organs usually invisible, hidden between 

 the abdomen and the cephalothorax, the front part of it 

 where the head without neck is prolonged directly into 

 the thorax. The male is provided with two rigid penes 

 englobed in a sheath double but forming a single canal ; 

 holding the female belly to belly he inserts them in the 

 vulva, one branch bending to the left, the other to the 

 right toward each of the two oviducts. Same mechanism 

 in crustaceans, save in the rare cases when they are her- 

 maphrodite. Lobsters, langousts, ectevisses, crabs, like 

 the scorpion, couple in a manner singularly resembling 

 that of humans. Curious spectacle, that of the hen lob- 



