198 Studies in Animal Behavior 



throw itself Into an immobile state with its head 

 bent down and its legs drawn in close to the body. 

 It would remain in this attitude perfectly quiet for 

 several minutes — sometimes for over an hour. Its 

 awakening would be first manifested by a slight 

 trembling of the feet and a slow oscillation of the 

 antennse and palps; then its legs would move about 

 more vigorously, and finally the insect would arise 

 and scamper off. Seized again, it would repeat the 

 performance several times in succession, the dura- 

 tion of the feint often increasing with successive 

 trials. Finally, as if wearied, or convinced that the 

 ruse were vain, the beetle would refuse to feign 

 longer. 



Were the feints attempts to deceive its captor by 

 simulating death? Fabre placed the insect on its 

 back, went to a distant part of the room, and re- 

 mained perfectly quiet. The beetle still lay as usual. 

 He then went out of the room, carefully looking 

 in at intervals to watch the course of events. Still 

 the same immobility. In other cases he covered the 

 insect so that it could not see out and then quietly 

 went away. This was also found to make no dif- 

 ference. In fact, whether the insects were sur- 

 rounded by sounds and sights of moving objects, or 

 entirely excluded from these influences made no dif- 

 ference in the average length of time they would 

 remain in a motionless condition. Similar experi- 

 ments have been made on other insects by different 

 observers, who have all arrived at the conclusion 



