[27] Jean Théodore Lacordaire (1801–1870), professor at the university of Liège from 1835, author of Les Genera des coléoptères, in twelve volumes, and of the Introduction à l’entomologie quoted above (1837–1839).—Translator’s Note. [28] Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802), the poet and naturalist, grandfather of Charles Robert Darwin. The book from which the above passage is quoted is Zoonomia, or, The Laws of Organic Life (1794–1796); but the reader will note that the author withdraws these comments in a later essay (cf. The Mason-bees, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chap. vii.), where he explains that they are due to a misquotation or mistranslation made by Lacordaire, who wrote ‘a Sphex’ where Darwin, as his grandson pointed out to Fabre, had written ‘a Wasp,’ meaning the Common or Social Wasp. It was open to me to suppress this part of the chapter; but, in that case, there would have been so little left of the original and so small an excuse for the title that I might as readily have suppressed the whole chapter, a liberty which I did not feel justified in taking. Besides, the footnote to the aforementioned chapter of The Mason-bees, which precedes the present volume in the English edition, makes sufficient amends for any injury done to the elder Darwin’s reputation here.—Translator’s Note. [29] ‘The busy bees, with a soft murmuring strain, Invite to gentle sleep the labouring swain.’— Pastorals, i., Dryden’s translation. [30] Cf. p. 43 n. Flourens’ Expériences sur le système nerveux were first published in 1825.—Translator’s Note. [31] ·039 inch.—Translator’s Note. [32] The caterpillars of the Geometræ, or Geometrid Moths, are called also Inchworms, Spanworms and Surveyors.—Translator’s Note. [33] Cf. The Life of the Fly, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chap. ix.—Translator’s Note. [34] About ·08 inch.—Translator’s Note. [35] For a description of this new species, see the Appendix to the present volume.—Author’s Note. [36] Or Flesh-fly. Cf. The Life of the Fly: chap. x.—Translator’s Note. [37] The Bluebottle.—Translator’s Note. [38] The Common House-fly.—Translator’s Note. [39] Cf. The Life of the Fly: chaps. ii. and iv.—Translator’s Note. [40] For other essays on the homing of insects, cf. The Mason-bees: chaps. ii. to vi.—Translator’s Note. [41] ·061 cubic inch.—Translator’s Note. [42] 61 cubic inches.—Translator’s Note. [43] The piece of waste ground on which the author used to study his insects in their natural state. Cf. The Life of the Fly: chap. i.—Translator’s Note. [44] Gun-flints.—Author’s Note. [45] The local expression.—Author’s Note. [46] Burying-beetles.—Translator’s Note. [47] Carrion-beetles.—Translator’s Note. [48] Mimic-beetles.—Translator’s Note. [49] Bacon-beetles.—Translator’s Note. [50] The Horseshoe Bat.—Translator’s Note.