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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: I called the death-song, ceases, in vain I hasten to insert my
forceps: I always bring out the insect dead, with slack proboscis
and limp legs. Scarce a few quivers of those legs tell me that it
is a quite recent corpse. The Bumble-bee's death is instantaneous.
Each time that I take a fresh victim from the terrible slaughter-
house, my surprise is renewed at the sight of its sudden
immobility.
Nevertheless, both animals have very nearly the same strength; for
I choose my Bumble-bees from among the largest (Bombus hortorum and
B. terrestris). Their weapons are almost equal: the Bee's dart
can bear comparison with the Spider's fangs; the sting of the first
The Life of the Spider |
