Another Locustid, the Phaneroptera who carries a short yataghan bent into a reaping-hook (P. falcata, Scop.), has made up to me in part for my stud troubles. Repeatedly, [[299]]but always under conditions which did not allow of completing my observation, I have caught her carrying the fertilizing-concern under the base of her sabre. It is a diaphanous, oval phial, measuring three or four millimetres[4] and hanging from a crystal thread, a neck almost as long as the distended part. The insect does not touch it, but leaves the phial to dry up and shrivel where it is.[5]
Let us be content with this. These five examples, furnished by such different genera, Decticus, Analota, Grasshopper, Ephippiger and Phaneroptera, prove that the Locustid, like the Scolopendra and the Cephalopod, is a belated representative of the manners of antiquity, a valuable specimen of the genetic eccentricities of olden times. [[300]]
[1] The 14th of July, the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[2] The order of insects comprising the Grasshoppers, Locusts, Crickets, Cockroaches, Mantes and Earwigs. The Cicada, with whom the present volume opens, and the Foamy Cicadella, with whom it closes, belong to the order of Homoptera.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[3] The author was obviously thinking of the Englishman’s saddle of mutton and red-currant jelly. The mistake has been repeated much nearer to these shores. I have in mind the true story of an Irish king’s counsel singing the praises of another, still among us, who had married an English wife and who, in the course of an extensive practice in the House of Lords, spent much of his time in England:
“Ah, —— —— is a real gentleman! He speaks with [[290]]an English accent, quotes Euripides in the original Latin and takes jam with his meat.”
I venture to think that Fabre, in the gentleness of his heart, would have forgiven his translator for quoting this flippant anecdote. I have no other excuse.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[4] .117 to .156 inch.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[5] Fuller details on this curious subject would be out of place in a book in which anatomy and physiology cannot always speak quite freely. They will be found in my essay on the Locustidæ which appeared in the Annales des sciences naturelles, 1896.—Author’s Note. [↑]