88 FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



pretend to be a ghost, with a view to frightening them, after 

 the manner of the Mantis. She never unfurls her wings 

 suddenly nor puffs like a startled Adder. She has never 

 the least inclination for the cannibal banquets at which a 

 sister, after being worsted in a fight, is eaten up. Nor does 

 she, like the Mantis, devour her husband. Such atrocities 

 are here unknown. 



The organs of the two insects are the same. These pro- 

 found moral differences, therefore, are not due to any differ- 

 ence in the bodily form. Possibly they may arise from the 

 difference in food. Simple living, as a matter of fact, softens 

 character, in animals as in men ; over-feeding brutalises it. 

 The glutton, gorged with meat and strong drink a very 

 common cause of savage outbursts could never be as gentle 

 as the self-denying hermit who lives on bread dipped into 

 a cup of milk. The Mantis is a glutton : the Empusa lives 

 the simple life. 



And yet, even when this is granted, one is forced to ask 

 a further question. Why, when the two insects are almost 

 exactly the same in form, and might be expected to have 

 the same needs, should the one have an enormous appetite 

 and the other such temperate ways ? They tell us, in their 

 own fashion, what many insects have told us already : that 

 inclinations and habits do not depend entirely upon anatomy. 

 High above the laws that govern matter rise other laws that 

 govern instincts. 



II 



THE WHITE-FACED DECTICUS 



The White-faced Decticus stands at the head of the Grass- 

 hopper clan in my district, both as a singer and as an insect 

 of imposing presence. He has a grey body, a pair of powerful 

 mandibles, and a broad ivory face. Without being plentiful, 

 he is neither difficult nor wearisome to hunt. In the height 

 of summer we find him hopping in the long grass, especially 



