Chapter I: Front Matter

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BY
J. HENRI FABRE

TRANSLATED BY

Alexander Teixeira de Mattos
FELLOW OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON

NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1922

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE

This, if we count The Life of the Weevil as the third, is the fourth and last volume on Beetles in the Collected English Edition of Fabre’s entomological works. The first was entitled The Sacred Beetle and Others; the second The Glow-worm and Other Beetles.

Of the fourteen chapters, part of the four devoted to the Minotaur appeared, in an abbreviated form, in The Life and Love of the Insect, prepared by myself for Messrs. Adam and Charles Black and published in America by the Macmillan Co. Similarly, The Pine Cockchafer and the two chapters on the Gold Beetles occur in Mr. Fisher Unwin’s Social Life in the Insect World (published in America by the Century Co.), translated by Mr. Bernard Miall, whom I take this opportunity of thanking for his assistance in the translation of the present volume. These seven chapters are included in the Collected Edition by arrangement with the publishers named.

Alexander Teixeira de Mattos.

Chelsea, 29 September, 1921.

CONTENTS

PAGE
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE v

CHAPTER
I THE CETONIÆ 1
II SAPRINI, DERMESTES AND OTHERS 34
III THE BEADED TROX 55
IV MINOTAURUS TYPHŒUS: THE BURROW 72
V MINOTAURUS TYPHŒUS: FIRST ATTEMPTS AT OBSERVATION 98
VI MINOTAURUS TYPHŒUS: FURTHER OBSERVATIONS 125
VII MINOTAURUS TYPHŒUS: MORALITY 152
VIII THE ERGATES; THE COSSUS 172
IX THE PINE COCKCHAFER 194
X THE VEGETARIAN INSECTS 215
XI THE DWARFS 238
XII SOME ANOMALIES 255
XIII THE GOLD BEETLES: THEIR FOOD 278
XIV THE GOLD BEETLES: THEIR NUPTIAL HABITS 299

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