The Life of the Fly

This volume contains the entire essay on Flies, or Diptera, from the Souvenirs Entomologiques, to which has been added and the purely autobiographical essays comprised in the Souvenirs. These essays, though they have no bearing upon The life of the Fly, are among the most interesting that Henri Fabre has written and will, we are persuaded, make a special appeal to the reader. The chapter entitled The Caddis worm has been included as following directly upon The Pond.

Jean-Henri Fabre (1823-1915) is well known for his popularization of insect natural history, especially in the ten volumes of Souvenirs Entomoligiques. Although a reclusive amateur, with no scientific training, he was an acute observer of insect behavior. He combined his observations (most made in his own backyard) with a humanistic writing style that made his books popular, at least later in his life; during most of his life, the successive volumes of Souvenirs Entomologiques attracted only mild attention. Fabre was 84 when the last volume appeared, and soon afterward he was "discovered." He was elected to numerous scientific societies, provided a government pension, and even the President of France came to visit him.