[12] Cf. The Life of the Spider, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chap. x.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[13] I do not wish to correct the author; but I find that all the books of reference in my possession describe the pea-nut (Arachis hypogea) as a native of Brazil and I am inclined to think that African, in the French edition, may be a misprint for American.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[14] .156 to .195 inch.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
CHAPTER X
THE VEGETARIAN INSECTS
Alone of living creatures, civilized man knows how to eat, by which I mean to say that he treats the affairs of the stomach with a certain pomp and circumstance. He is an expert cook and an artist in delicate sauces. He celebrates his meals with luxurious plate and crockery. He officiates at table like a high-priest; he practises rites and ceremonies. At his banquets he calls for music and flowers, that he may masticate his portion of dead flesh in splendour.
Animals do not display these eccentricities. They merely feed, which, after all, may very well be the true means of avoiding deterioration. They take nourishment; and that, for them, is enough. They eat to live, whereas many of us live, above all, to eat.
Man’s stomach is a pit in which all things edible are engulfed. The stomach of the vegetarian insect is a fastidious laboratory to which nothing but appointed mouthfuls are allowed to find their way. Each guest at the [[216]]vegetarian banquet has its plant, its fruits, its pod, its seed, which it eagerly exploits, disdaining other victuals, though they may be of equal value.
The carnivorous insect, on the other hand, has no narrow specialities and devours any kind of flesh. The Golden Carabus finds the caterpillar, the Mantis, the Cockchafer, the Earthworm, the Slug or any other kind of game to his taste. The Cerceres collect, for their grubs, bags of Weevils or Buprestes, without distinction of species. The Bruchus,[1] on the other hand, will touch nothing but her pea or her bean; the Golden Rhynchites[2] only her sloe; the Spotted Larinus[3] only the sky-blue ball of her little thistle; the Nut-weevil[4] only her filbert; the Iris-weevil[5] only the capsule of the yellow water iris. And so with other insects. The vegetarian is a short-sighted specialist; the meat-eater an emancipated generalizer. [[217]]