580 MATERNAL SOLICITUDE IN INSECTS. 



Acanthosoniatina?, the other three to the Pentatomina?, subfamilies 

 distinguished apart by considerable and important structural differ- 

 ences. Fabre declares that in these species "the mother paid no 

 attention to her brood; the last egg laid in its place at the extreme 

 end of the final row she left, careless of the trust; she no longer 

 busied herself with it, and returned no more. If the chances of 

 roaming bring her hack, she walks over the heap and passes on, 

 indifferent. * * * This forgetfulness must not be considered as a 

 possible aberration due to captivity. In the full freedom of the fields 

 I have discovered divers broods, among which are found, perhaps, 

 that of the gray bug. Never htive I seen the mother mounted over her 

 eggs, as she ought to, if her family required protection as soon as 

 hatched. The mother is of roving inclination and facile flight. Once 

 flown far from the leaf which received the treasure, how, two or three 

 weeks later, will she remember that the hour of exclusion approaches? 

 How will she rediscover her eggs, and how again distinguish them 

 from those of another mother? It would be incredible — such prowess 

 of memory amid the immensity of the fields. 



"Never, I sav, is a mother surprised stationary near the eggs 

 that she has fixed on a leaf, and, more convincing still, the total 

 brood is divided into clutches scattered haphazard, so that the family 

 in its entirety is formed of a number of tribes lodged here, there, and 

 at distances sometimes considerable, but impossible to fix precisely. 

 To rediscover these tribes at time of hatching, earlier or later accord- 

 ing to the date of oviposition or the forwardness of the season, and 

 then to reassemble in one flock from the four corners of the universe 

 all the little ones, so feeble and moving so unsteadily — there are in 

 this evident impossibilities. Suppose that bj^ chance one of the groups 

 is discovered and recognized and that the mother devotes herself to 

 them. The others must in that case be abandoned — and the}^ do not 

 prosper the less. What, then, is the motive for this remarkable 

 maternal zeal with regard to the care of one of the groups when the 

 majority are left? Such singularities inspire mistrust. 



"De Geer mentions groups of 20. These would certainly not be 

 the complete family, but just a tribe resultant from a partial oviposi- 

 tion. A Pentatoma, smaller than the gray bug, has given me in a 

 single ))atch more than 100 eggs. A like fecundit}^ ought to be the 

 general rule when the mode of living is the same. Bej^ond the 20 

 observed, what became of the others abandoned to themselves? 



"Despite the respect due to the Swedish savant, the caresses of the 

 mother bug and the unnatural appetites of the father, devouring his 

 little ones, ought to be relegated to the same limbo as the childish 

 tales which encumber history. I have watched in an aviary (voliere) 

 as man}^ hatchings as I wished. The parents were near at hand, under 

 the same roof. What do they all do in the presence of the young? 



