Science: Insects' Homer

"What a spectacle, in the spring, beneath a dead mole!" wrote Jean Henri Fabre. "The horror of this laboratory is a beautiful sight for one who is able to observe and meditate. Let us overcome our disgust; let us turn over the unclean refuse with our foot. What a swarming there is beneath it, what a tumult of busy workers! The Silphae,* with wing cases wide and dark, as though in mourning, flee distraught, hiding in the cracks in the soil; the Saprini,* of polished ebony which mirrors the sunlight, jog hastily off, deserting...

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