El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1920-05-07
Bugs And BHgHOuSeS

TABRE, the Frenchman whose pa
II thence in Watching insects and
whose simplicity ia recording their
lives have won him double place I'm
and author, has a book on instinct
wherein he sets forth some Of the
wonderfully intricate knowledge OF
mechanics that seem like brain work,
Of bugs Much Of our human action
is OF course instinct as is much of
our thought and light We acknoWl-
edge II when we say she Is kind by
all her instincts, or she is base there
by. or lie is good OF bad or high or
low by instinct
More wonder that man can think at
an beyond when one sees what a
bug can do without any thinking APP
body at home, and yet the records Of
one beetle Eabre calls him the capri
corn beetle, show that the grub, the
worm works out a long. complicated
insect passes through three remark
able lives before completing his life
and using up his powers. He IS
grub or larTas pupd- and then Elorl-
Gus shining horned beetle. His larva
is at first worm, or caterpillar not
bigger around than a lead pencil and
not fourth as long This small piece
of intestine, as Eabre calls it. it is
hardly more, begins life in an oak and
for three years IL tunnels and bores
in the oak, co ting oak and tunneling
and moving forward continually. 1t
leaves slTdusE back Of itself filling
its tunnel and so must 90 forward
Thus and In the quiet pupa stage, e
spends about three years in the oak
doing much damage to one OF the best Z
trees on eartns but that Is not THIS
story. Smash the worm and the
beetle but listen TO his story. Thus
tunneling and eating wood. when his
time 10 turn pupa he knows, though
he can neither read nor write nor I
Tor that matter, see. hear, or smell. [
He has no calendar, but he knows his
time. Somehow he knows also that I
beetle that he IS going 10 be could l
never get out into the world where I
he must be 10 live, from the deeps
Of the oak or through the worms I
towards the outer parts OF the tree
and knows where that is, and tunnels ]
and eats until he has eaten himself I
20 quite near the bark Then he :
shaves off the bark until 10 is thin as ]
thin paper So that when he is D
beetle he can break through easily ]
and not break his slender horns
Thus this tiny worm, this fragment ]
OF intestine prepares. He carefully I
widens his tunnel 10 a short way back /
TO a place warm enough and safe I
enough, although from the outside his 1
thin piece IN the bark Is entirely IN /
mics, he carves himself little cham ]
Der. Next he scrapes and shaves oak !
until it is fine as thistlcdown for a .
lining As pup1 he viii have a I
delicate skin he builds a sort Of /
porcelain or metal lid, al this is out /
of eating wood, and then he lays HIM /
self away with his head always ]
pointed out He knows, or acts as 4
ing he is to be cannot turn, and seals
himself in and wraps himself in silk I
and becomes q pupa- When SPRING
time comes and sap sWells and i
HnHH AL 11n
stirs- and breaks through. slips out 4
and into the tunnel wide enough for /
his swelling winged body His way
is made for him 70 the thin oak
screen between him and the outside /
world This he easily breaks through
and emerges, weak wet chilly. but ]
a splendid arInOred, horned beetle, the 4
ultimate life that he has been groW-
ing towards, and enters upon the ]
fitness Of life. He has no brain. He j
can do nothing but eat, digest, tunnel
with his sharp Jaws and manutac-
ture saWdusr, silk and the lime like
hood with which he protects his pupal
chamber. he is not even a bug when
ne does all this, only becoming a
bug
Measured by the worm which can
do all this without brains, man ought
10 nearly reach the stars and see God
without new thought, only by his rich
instinct The performance OF the
worm is so tremendous so much bet
ter apparently than the muddles some
humans make OF existence, that one
wonders III there be any such thing
as brains anyway, whether 1t is not
all purely mechanical except that I
bug can only follow his plan. he
cannot escape his devastating lie.
re could not be GOOD if he wanted
10. lie cannot 90 70 Florida 20 escape
the Billiards OF 20 Alaska to escape
the sun He cannot change his days
Man can and man can think God
while the bug can only apparently
accept God e Nee S.
rance ITALY. spain. south Ameriea,