[The Wonders of Instinct by J. H. Fabre]@TWC D-Link book
The Wonders of Instinct

CHAPTER 4
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Eating is not everything: we have to get out of this.

The larva, so well-equipped with tools and muscular strength, finds no difficulty in going where it pleases, by boring through the wood; but does the coming Capricorn, whose short spell of life must be spent in the open air, possess the same advantages?
Hatched inside the trunk, will the long-horned insect be able to clear itself a way of escape?
That is the difficulty which the worm solves by inspiration.

Less versed in things of the future, despite my gleams of reason, I resort to experiment with a view to fathoming the question.

I begin by ascertaining that the Capricorn, when he wishes to leave the trunk, is absolutely unable to make use of the tunnel wrought by the larva.

It is a very long and very irregular maze, blocked with great heaps of wormed wood.


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