CONTENTS
The natural philosophy of love
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Author: de Gourmont Rémy
Year: 1904
The philanthe, a sort of wasp, catches a bee to feed its larvae; while carrying the prey to his nest, he presses the belly, sucks the bee, empties it of all its honey. But at the entrance of the nest a mantis is waiting, its double-saw of an arm is unfolded, the philanthe is nipped in passing. And one sees the mantis gnawing the belly of the philanthe while the philanthe continues sucking the belly of the bee. And the mantis is so voracious that you can cut her in two without making her let go; a chain, truly, of carnage. The larvae of the sphex, another wasp, are fed on live crickets that have been paralysed by a stab. As soon as it hatches, the larva attacks the cricket in the belly at the chosen spot where the egg has been laid. The poor insect protests by feeble movements of the antennae and mandibles: in vain. He is eaten alive, fibre by fibre, by a great worm which gnaws his entrails, and with so great a skill that it begins on the parts not essential to life, and thus keeps the prey fresh and tasty to the last. Such is the gentleness of Nature, the good mother.
Tr. Ezra Pound
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