Insect life: Souvenirs of a naturalistFabre, Jean-Henri
Science
Insect life: Souvenirs of a naturalist
Fabre, Jean-Henri
Insects -- Biology
Among the Scarabæus class, the Buprestids, and the Weevils, the effect
is instantaneous. Every movement stops suddenly, without any
convulsion, as soon as the fatal drop has touched the nerve centres.
The sting of the Cerceris does not produce prompter extinction. Nothing
can be more striking than this sudden immobility in a vigorous
Scarabæus sacer, but the likeness between the effects produced by the
dart of the Cerceris and the steel pen charged with ammonia does not
stop here. Scarabæids, Buprestids, and Weevils artificially stung, in
spite of their complete immobility, preserve for three weeks, one
month, or even two, the perfect flexibility of every joint and the
normal freshness of the interior organs. With them defecation takes
place on the first days as in the normal condition, and movement can be
excited by the Voltaic current. In a word, they behave exactly as do
Coleoptera sacrificed by the Cerceris. There is complete identity
between the state into which she plunges her victims and that produced
at will by injecting ammonia into the nerve centres of the thorax. Now,
as it is impossible to attribute the perfect preservation of the insect
during so long a time to the drop injected, one must altogether reject
the notion of an antiseptic fluid, and grant that in spite of utter
immobility the creature is not really dead. A spark of life exists,
keeping the organs for some time in normal freshness, but dying out by
degrees and leaving them at last subject to corruption. Moreover, the
ammonia in some cases produces extinction of movement in the feet only,
and then the deleterious action of the fluid having doubtless not
extended far enough, the antennæ preserve some mobility, and one sees
that the creature, even a month after inoculation, draws them back
quickly at the least touch—an evident proof that life has not
completely abandoned the inert body. This movement is not rare with
Weevils wounded by the Cerceris.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account