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  DURING THE DROUGHTS OF SUMMER THIRSTING INSECTS, AND NOTABLY THE ANT, FLOCK TO THE DRINKING-PLACES OF THE CIGALE 8   THE CIGALE AND THE EMPTY PUPA-SKIN 28   THE ADULT CIGALE, FROM BELOW. THE CIGALE OF THE FLOWERING ASH, MALE AND FEMALE 36   THE CIGALE LAYING HER EGGS. THE GREEN GRASSHOPPER, THE FALSE CIGALE OF THE NORTH, DEVOURING THE TRUE CIGALE, A DWELLER IN THE SOUTH 48   THE NEST OF THE PRAYING MANTIS; TRANSVERSE SECTION OF THE SAME; NEST OF EMPUSA PAUPERATA; TRANSVERSE SECTION OF THE SAME; VERTICAL SECTION OF THE SAME; NEST OF THE GREY MANTIS; SCHEFFER'S SISYPHUS (see Chap. XII.); PELLET OF THE SISYPHUS; PELLET OF THE SISYPHUS, WITH DEJECTA OF THE LARVA FORCED THROUGH THE WALLS 88   THE MANTIS DEVOURING THE MALE IN THE ACT OF MATING; THE MANTIS COMPLETING HER NEST; GOLDEN SCARABÆI CUTTING UP A LOB-WORM 90   THE GOLDEN GARDENER: THE MATING SEASON OVER, THE MALES ARE EVISCERATED BY THE FEMALES 114   THE FIELD-CRICKET: A DUEL BETWEEN RIVALS; THE DEFEATED RIVAL RETIRES, INSULTED BY THE VICTOR 124   THE ITALIAN CRICKET 132   THE GREAT PEACOCK OR EMPEROR MOTH 180   THE GREAT PEACOCK MOTH. THE PILGRIMS DIVERTED BY THE LIGHT OF A LAMP 196   THE GREY LOCUST; THE NERVATURES OF THE WING; THE BALANINUS FALLEN A VICTIM TO THE LENGTH OF HER PROBOSCIS 244   THE PINE-CHAFER (MELOLONTHA FULLO) 318

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SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD

CHAPTER I

THE FABLE OF THE CIGALE AND THE ANT

Fame is the daughter of Legend. In the world of creatures, as in the world of men, the story precedes and outlives history. There are many instances of the fact that if an insect attract our attention for this reason or that, it is given a place in those legends of the people whose last care is truth.

For example, who is there that does not, at least by hearsay, know the Cigale? Where in the entomological world shall we find a more famous reputation? Her fame as an impassioned singer, careless of the future, was the subject of our earliest lessons in repetition. In short, easily remembered lines of verse, we learned how she was destitute when the winter winds arrived, and how she went begging for food to the Ant, her neighbour. A poor welcome she received, the would-be borrower!—a welcome that has become proverbial, and her chief title to celebrity. The petty malice of the two short lines—

has done more to immortalise the insect than her skill as a musician. "You sang! I am very glad to hear it! Now you can dance!" The words lodge in the childish memory, never to be forgotten. To most Englishmen—to most Frenchmen even—the song of the Cigale is unknown, for she dwells in the country of the olive-tree; but we all know of the treatment she received at the hands of the Ant. On such trifles does Fame depend! A legend of very dubious value, its moral as bad as its natural history; a nurse's tale whose only merit is its brevity; such is the basis of a reputation which will survive the wreck of centuries no less surely than the tale of Puss-in-Boots and of Little Red Riding-Hood.

The child is the best guardian of tradition, the great conservative. Custom and tradition become indestructible when confided to the archives of his memory. To the child we owe the celebrity of the Cigale, of whose misfortunes he has babbled during his first lessons in recitation. It is he who will preserve for future generations the absurd nonsense of which the body of the fable is constructed; the Cigale will always be hungry when the cold comes, although there were never Cigales in winter; she will always beg alms in the shape of a few grains of wheat, a diet absolutely incompatible with her delicate capillary "tongue"; and in desperation she will hunt