Jean Henri Fabre

Jean Henri Fabre (1823-1915), French entomologist, noted for his studies of arthropod behaviour. He was born in Saint-Léons and educated at the École Normale of Vaucluse. He became interested in the habits and instincts of insects while studying for his doctorate. After his retirement in 1871 from teaching in France and Corsica, he lived in seclusion in Sérignan and devoted himself to the study of entomology.

Fabre based all his research on direct observation of insects in their natural environments. In his study of the Hymenoptera, he found that wasps frequently sting their prey in the region of nerve centres, thus rendering the prey immobile. In this condition they may be stored for eating at a future time. Fabre believed that this specialized behaviour demonstrated reasoning power, and he came to the erroneous conclusion that, because habits might not be entirely fixed in insects, the theory of evolution is invalid. Along with his works on the relationship between the human and insect minds, Fabre also did research on the relationship of insects to agriculture. He is the author of Souvenirs entomologiques (10 vols., 1879-1907); selections translated into English include The Life of the Spider (1912), The Life of the Fly (1913), The Life of the Caterpillar (1918), and The Life of the Weevil (1922).