136 FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



Things do not always happen, however, in quite such a 

 primitive fashion. There are tribes that provide a dowry for 

 their families, that prepare board and lodging for them in 

 advance. The Bees and Wasps in particular are masters in 

 the industry of making cellars, jars, and satchels, in which 

 the ration of honey for the young is hoarded : they are perfect 

 in the art of creating burrows stocked with the game that 

 forms the food of their grubs. 



Well, this enormous labour, which is one of building and 

 provisioning combined, this toil in which the insect's whole 

 life is spent, is done by the mother alone. It wears her out ; 

 it utterly exhausts her. The father, drunk with sunlight, 

 stands idle at the edge of the workyard, watching his plucky 

 helpmate at her job. 



Why does he not lend the mother a helping hand ? It is 

 now or never. Why does he not follow the example of the 

 Swallow couple, both of whom bring their bit of straw, their 

 blob of mortar to the building, and their Midge to the young 

 ones ? He does nothing of the kind. Possibly he puts 

 forward his comparative weakness as an excuse. It is a 

 poor argument ; for to cut a disk out of a leaf, to scrape 

 some cotton from a downy plant, to collect a little bit of 

 cement in muddy places would not overtax his strength. He 

 could very easily help, at any rate as a labourer ; he is quite 

 fit to gather the materials for the mother, with her greater 

 intelligence, to fit in place. The real reason of his inactivity 

 is sheer incapability. 



It is strange that the most gifted of the industrial insects 

 should know nothing of a father's duties. One would expect 

 the highest talents to be developed in him by the needs of 

 the young ; but he remains as dull-witted as a Butterfly, 

 whose family is reared at so small a cost. We are baffled at 

 every turn by the question : Why is a particular instinct 

 given to one insect and denied to another ? 



It baffles us so thoroughly that we are extremely sur- 

 prised when we find in the scavenger the noble qualities that 

 are denied to the honey-gatherer. Various Scavenger Beetles 



