MA.TERNAL SOLICITUDE IN INSECTS. 581 



Nothing- at all. The^athers do not dash to drain the juices of their 

 brats. Neither do the mothers rush to protect them. One flits about 

 the latticework (treillis) [? metal gauze], one settles down to refresh- 

 ment at the rosemary, while another walks over the groups of newly 

 hatched ^^oungsters, which he tumbles head over heels, without any 

 bad intention, but without an}^ discretion. The little l)eggars are so 

 small, so feeble, that, passing by, he grazes them with the end of his 

 foot and overturns them. Like turned turtles, the}" vainly kick 

 about; no one heeds them. 



"During three months' assiduous observations I have not noted the 

 slightest appearance of the maternal solicitude so celebrated by the 

 compilers. The newly hatched bugs, packed one against the other, 

 remain stationary" for several days on the empty eggs; there the}" 

 acquire a firmer consistency and brighter coloring. Hunger comes; 

 one of the youngsters leaves the group in search of refreshment; the 

 others follow, happy in their mutual proximity, like sheep at pastur- 

 age; the first in moving sets in motion the whole band, who set out 

 for tender places where they may implant their beaks and imbibe; 

 then they all return to their natal place for repose upon the empty 

 eggs. Expeditions in common are repeated over an increasing radius, 

 till at last, somewhat strengthened, the society separates and breaks 

 up, never to retarn to its place of birth. Henceforth each one lives 

 in his own w"ay. What, then, would happen if, when the troop moves 

 away, there should encounter them a mother of slow gait, a frequent 

 case among the sedate bugs? The young ones, I suppose, would confi- 

 dently follow this chance leader, as they follow those among them- 

 selves who are the first to take to the road. There would then be 

 some similarity to a hen at the head of her chickens. This casual 

 occurrence would lend an appearance of maternal cares in a stranger 

 heedless of her bundle of brats. 



"The good De Geer appears to me to have been duped in some such 

 manner; a little color, involuntarily embellished, has completed the 

 tableau; and then are vaunted in books the family virtues of the gray 

 bug." 



Fabre has been led into error, first, by his ignorance of systematic 

 rhynchotology — as 1 have previously remarked, the form of bug which 

 De Geer had under observation belongs to a subfamily not closely 

 allied to that embracing the bugs watched by Fabre; secondly, by his 

 negligence of previous literature, except that of De Geer (and inci- 

 dentally Modeer) and Boitard; yet we have an independent observer, 

 Montrouzier, ignorant, apparently, of all previous similar records, 

 who notes a like habit in yet another subfamily, more remote still 

 from either, and that almost at the antipodes of Europe. Moreover, 

 De Geer\s accounts are explicitly corroborated by two competent field 

 entomologists whose integrity and capacity have never before been 



