| Fig. 81.—Larva of the Cicada. | Fig. 82.—Pupa of the Cicada. |
For the rest, we may, by-the-by, say that La Fontaine's fable of "La Cigale et la Fourmi" is full of errors in natural history. Nothing is easier than to prove the truth of this assertion. From the very first verses, the author shows that he has never observed the animal of which he speaks.
"La Cigale ayant chanté
Tout l'été."
No Cicada could sing "tout l'été," since it lives at the utmost for a few weeks only.
"Se trouva fort dépourvue
Quand la bise fut venue."
"Quand la bise fut venue" means without doubt the month of November or December. But at this season of the year the Cicada has a long time since passed from life to death. When one wanders along the outskirts of woods as early as the month of October, in the south of France, one finds the soil covered with dead Cicadas. La Fontaine's Cigale then could not have found itself "fort dépourvue," for the simple reason that it was already dead.
"Elle alla crier famine
Chez la Fourmi, sa voisine,
La priant de lui preter
Quelque grain pour subsister."
The ant is carnivorous, and although it likes honey, it has nothing to do with grains of wheat, nor with any other grain, of which, according to the fabulist, it had laid up a stock. On the other hand, the Cicada, which he blames for having
"Pas un seul petit morceau
De mouche ou de vermisseau,"