He
was born in 1823 in Saint-Léons, a small village 150 kilometres
north of Narbonne, in Occitania. He grew up in a poor farming family,
and as a child he developed a deep interest in nature and insects. He
went sot school for a few years, but he was largely self-taught.
He attended a teacher training school in Avignon and became a teacher at the age of 19. He married soon after and had seven children, three of whom died at a young age.
He lived in poverty until he could earn some money with his books. At a time he had serious money difficulties and Stuart Mill helped him.
He taught for four years in Corsica and then in Avignon. He taught mainly mathematics and science. This led him to develop a deep interest in plants and animals, particularly in insects. The result of this interest was, among other books, his Entomological Memories, a description of the behaviour of insects ans spiders in ten volumes. He wrote his observations in a lively and colloquial style and using a lot of personification and lovely images. For this work he is considered the father of modern entomology and of ethology.
He also wrote educational books of mathematics and science, and when young, some poetry.
When he was 60, he bought some land with a country house which he converted in an outdoor laboratory for his observations.
Although he wrote with a scientific spirit, he expressed his disagreement with Darwin’s theory of evolution. Darwin, however, praised his researches and his writings.
He died at the age of 92.
He attended a teacher training school in Avignon and became a teacher at the age of 19. He married soon after and had seven children, three of whom died at a young age.
He lived in poverty until he could earn some money with his books. At a time he had serious money difficulties and Stuart Mill helped him.
He taught for four years in Corsica and then in Avignon. He taught mainly mathematics and science. This led him to develop a deep interest in plants and animals, particularly in insects. The result of this interest was, among other books, his Entomological Memories, a description of the behaviour of insects ans spiders in ten volumes. He wrote his observations in a lively and colloquial style and using a lot of personification and lovely images. For this work he is considered the father of modern entomology and of ethology.
He also wrote educational books of mathematics and science, and when young, some poetry.
When he was 60, he bought some land with a country house which he converted in an outdoor laboratory for his observations.
Although he wrote with a scientific spirit, he expressed his disagreement with Darwin’s theory of evolution. Darwin, however, praised his researches and his writings.
He died at the age of 92.
SPHEX OF LANGUEDOC
This piece of writing tells us about an insect, a hymenopteran, the Sphex, a type of wasp. (The word hymenoptera is a compound of hymen, that is membrane, and ptera, that means wings.)
The wasp we’re talking about is a very curious and, if we like to personify, cruel insect. She, because it is the female, hunts and paralyzes another insect, the Ephippiger, which feeds on vine leaves, without killing it and turning it to a kind of living larder to feed her larvae after laying her egg on the prey.
However, this prey is bigger and heavier than the hunter, so it’s not easy for her to carry it flying, or very far from where it has been caught to her nest, a burrow built ad hoc after the prey is secured.
Our text describes the enormous difficulties of this process of carrying the prey to the burrow, and the narrator does it using the literary device of prosopopoeia or incarnation, that is, attributing human qualities and behaviour to an object, an idea or an animal, as it happens in our case.
But also the narrative tells us about the adventures (if we can call thus his various mishaps) of the researcher or observer.
The author begins by comparing the scientist work in a laboratory, where the researcher has all he needs available and controlled, with the fieldwork, where the scientist has to wait for long hours in uncomfortable places exposed to a variety of weathers. And what is worse, they are the target of busybodies and curious passers-by who suspect that the observer is a poor lunatic, or even a suspect for the forester, who thinks he is a poacher who wants to steal some grapes (remember that the Ephippiger feeds on vine leaves).
However, the Sphex eventually appears with her prey. The observer has had his reward, and now can draw his conclusions, as for instance, that the Sphex is not a social insect at all and that she has to build her nest in an improvised way due to the particular nature of her prey.
QUESTIONS
-For you, what decides your homeland: ancestors, children, work, love, chance...?
-Do you think animals can be cruel? Or loyal? Or tender?...
-Can animals have rights? Which animals can have rights and which ones can't? And what rights?
-For you, what decides your homeland: ancestors, children, work, love, chance...?
-Do you think animals can be cruel? Or loyal? Or tender?...
-Can animals have rights? Which animals can have rights and which ones can't? And what rights?
VOCABULARY
ripely, ere, laughing in his sleeve, conscripts, fallow, ferret-cage, warrens, tarsi, haulage, trowel, allay
ripely, ere, laughing in his sleeve, conscripts, fallow, ferret-cage, warrens, tarsi, haulage, trowel, allay
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