other than that of the mulberry-tree. The Spurge Hawk-moth requires the
caustic milk-sap of the tithymals: the Corn-weevil the grain of wheat;
the Pea-weevil, the seeds of the Leguminosae; the Balaninus (A genus
of Beetles including the Acorn-weevil, the Nut-weevil and
others.--Translator's Note.) the hazel-nut, the chestnut, the acorn;
the Brachycera (A division of Flies including the Gad-flies and
Robber-flies.--Translator's Note.) the clove of garlic. Each has its
diet, each its plant; and each plant has its customary guests. Their
relations are so precise that in many cases one might determine the
insect by the vegetable which supports it, or the vegetable by the
insect.

If you know the lily, you may name as a Crioceris the tiny scarlet
Scarabaeid that inhabits it and peoples its leaves with larvae
which keep themselves cool beneath an overcoat of ordure. (For the
Lily-beetle, or Crioceris merdigera, cf. "The Glow-worm and Other
Beetles," by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos:
chapters 16 and 17.--Translator's Note.) If you know the Crioceris, you
may name as a lily the plant which she devastates. It will not perhaps
be the common or white lily, but some other representative of the same
family--Turk's cap lily, orange lily, scarlet Martagon, lancifoliate
lily, tiger-spotted lily, golden lily--hailing from the Alps or the
Pyrenees, or brought from China or Japan. Relying on the Crioceris, who
is an expert judge of exotic as well as of native Liliaceae, you may
name as a lily the plant with which you are unacquainted and trust
the word of this singular botanical master. Whether the flower be red,
yellow, ruddy-brown or sown with crimson spots, characteristics so
unlike the immaculate whiteness of the familiar flower, do not hesitate,
adopt the name dictated by the Beetle. Where man is liable to mistake
the insect is never mistaken.

This insect botany, a cause of such grievous tribulations, has always
impressed the worker in the fields, who for all that, is a very
indifferent observer. The man who was the first to see his cabbage-plot
devastated by caterpillars made the acquaintance of the Pieris. Science
completed the process, in its desire to serve a useful purpose or merely
to seek truth for truth's sake; and to-day the relations between the
insect and the plant form a collection of records as important from the
philosophical as from the practical, agricultural point of view. What
is mu