The Decticus: his Instrument 



one rugged surface over another. The 

 Capricorn moves his corseleted segment over 

 its junction with the rest of the thorax; 

 the Pine Cockchafer, 1 with his great fan- 

 shaped antennae, rubs his last dorsal seg- 

 ment with the edge of his wing-cases; the 

 Copris 2 and many more know no other 

 method. To tell the truth, these scrapers do 

 not produce a musical sound, but rather a 

 creaking like that of a weathercock on its 

 rusty pin, a thin, sharp sound with no 

 resonance in it. 



Among these inexperienced scrapers, I will 

 select the Bolboceras (B. gallicus, MULS.),* 

 as deserving honourable mention. Round as 

 a ball, sporting a horn on his forehead, like 

 the Spanish Copris, whose stercoral tastes 

 he does not share, this pretty Beetle loves 

 the pine-woods in my neighbourhood and 

 digs himself a burrow in the sand, leaving it 

 in the evening twilight with the gentle chirp 

 of a well-fed nestling under its mother's 



1 Cf. Social Life in the Insect World, by J. H. Fabre, 

 translated by Bernard Miall: chap. xxi. Translator's 

 Note. 



2 A Dung-beetle. Cf. The Life and Love of the Insect: 

 chap. v. Translator's Note. 



3 Cf. The Life of the Caterpillar, by J. Henri Fabre, 

 translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chap. xiii. 

 Translator's Note. 



255 



