44 FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



show us how promptly the anaesthetic bite takes effect, and 

 how very skilfully the Glow-worm treats his Snail. 



To do all this, poised high in air on a sheet of glass or a 

 grass-stem, the Glow-worm must have some special limb or 

 organ to keep him from slipping. It is plain that his short 

 clumsy legs are not enough. 



Through the magnifying-glass we can see that he does 

 indeed possess a special organ of this kind. Beneath his 

 body, towards the tail, there is a white spot. The glass 

 shows that this is composed of about a dozen short, fleshy 

 little tubes, or stumpy fingers, which are sometimes gathered 

 into a cluster, sometimes spread into a rosette. This bunch 

 of little fingers helps the Glow-worm to stick to a smooth 

 surface, and also to climb. If he wishes to fix himself to a 

 pane of glass or a stalk he opens his rosette, and spreads it 

 wide on the support, to which it clings by its own natural 

 stickiness. And by opening and shutting alternately it helps 

 him to creep along and to climb. 



The little fingers that form this rosette are not jointed, but 

 are able to move in all directions. Indeed they are more like 

 tubes than fingers, for they cannot seize anything, they can 

 only hold on by their stickiness. They are very useful, how- 

 ever, for they have a third purpose, besides their powers of 

 clinging and climbing. They are used as a sponge and brush. 

 At a moment of rest, after a meal, the Glow-worm passes 

 and repasses this brush over his head and sides and his whole 

 body, a performance made possible by the flexibility of his 

 spine. This is done point by point, from one end of the body 

 to the other, with a scrupulous care that proves the great 

 interest he takes in the operation. At first one may wonder 

 why he should dust and polish himself so carefully. But no 

 doubt, by the time he has turned the Snail into gruel inside 

 the shell and has then spent several days in eating the result 

 of his labours, a wash and brush-up is not amiss. 



