THE NATURAL 



female starts eating again. The calm is short; the male's 

 follies recommence. Then there is another manoeuvre, 

 with the fold of his legs and tarses, he seizes the female's 

 antennae, forces her to lift her head, at the same time 

 redoubling the lashing of her flanks. New pose; new 

 start of the flagellation: finally the female opens. The 

 coupling lasts a day and a night, after which the male 

 falls, but remains knotted to the female who drags him 

 from leaf to leaf, the penis attached to her organs. Some- 

 times he also takes a mouthful here and there; when he 

 drops off it is to die. The female lays the eggs and dies 

 in her turn. The cerocome, an insect kin to the cantha- 

 ride, has analogous habits, but the female is even colder, 

 and the male is obliged to tap more than one before get- 

 ting an answer. In vain he beats the sides of his chosen 

 companion with his paws, she remains insensible, inert. 

 This action, moreover, has the full appearance of having 

 passed to a state of mania in the male muscles, so much 

 so that, in default of females, males mount and pummel 

 each other. As soon as a male is charged by another male 

 he takes the female attitude and remains quiet; one sees 

 pyramids of three or four males; in which case the top 

 one is the only one wildly waving his feet; the others 

 remain immobile, as if their position of mounts trans- 

 formed them into passive animals: probably because their 

 muscles are pinned down. (For these two observations 

 see Fabre, "Souvenirs" vol. II. Cerocomes, mylabres et 

 zonitis.) 



It is rare for a female to assist the male in his work, 

 but there remains the obstacle of the other males. Con- 

 trary to what one might think, there is no relation be- 

 130 



