The Gymnopleuri 



add that, being powerless to burst his shell, 

 which has been turned into a strong-box by 

 the heat of August, the prisoner, in order to 

 release himself, waits until the first September 

 rains come to his help and soften the wall. 



Instinct, which under normal conditions 

 amazes us with its unerring prescience, 

 astonishes us no less with its dense ignorance 

 when unaccustomed conditions supervene. 

 Each insect has its trade, in which it excels, 

 its series of actions logically arranged. 

 Here it is really a master. Its foresight, 

 though unwitting, here surpasses our deliber- 

 ate science; its unconscious inspiration is here 

 the superior of our conscious reason. But 

 divert it from its natural course; and forth- 

 with darkness succeeds the splendours of 

 light. Nothing will rekindle the extinguished 

 rays, not even the greatest stimulus that ex- 

 ists, the stimulus of maternity. 



I have given many instances of this strange 

 antithesis,^ which is the death-blow to certain 

 theories; I find another and an exceedingly 

 striking one in the Dung-beetles whose story 

 I have now nearly finished telling. We are 

 surprised at this clear vision of the future 



1 Cf. inter alia the author's Some Reflections upon Insect 

 Psychology, in The Mason-Bees, by J. Henri Fabre, trans- 

 lated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chap. vii. — Trans- 

 lator's Note. 



179 



