The Simulation of Death 



atmospheric conditions and with the same 

 subject, though I cannot fathom the causes 

 which shorten or lengthen it. How to in- 

 vestigate the external influences, so numerous 

 and often so slight, which intervene in such 

 a case; above all, how to scrutinize the in- 

 sect's private impressions: these are impene- 

 trable mysteries. Let us confine ourselves to 

 recording the results. 



Immobility continues fairly often for as 

 long as fifty minutes; in certain cases, even, 

 it lasts more than an hour. The most fre- 

 quent length of time averages twenty minutes. 

 If nothing disturbs the Beetle, if I cover him 

 with a glass shade, protecting him from the 

 Flies, who are importunate visitors in the hot 

 weather prevailing at the time of my experi- 

 ment, the inertia is complete : not a quiver of 

 the tarsi, nor of the palpi, nor of the anten- 

 nae. Here indeed is a simulacrum of death, 

 with all its inertia. 



At last the apparently deceased comes back 

 to life. The tarsi quiver, those of the fore- 

 legs first; the palpi and the antennae move 

 slowly to and fro: this is the prelude to the 

 awakening. Now the legs begin to kick. 

 The insect bends slightly at its pinched waist; 

 it buttresses itself on its head and back; it 

 turns over. There it goes, jogging away, 

 3 7 i 



