Background

Jean-Henri Fabre was born on December 21, 1823 in Saint-Léons, Aveyron, France. He was the son of Antoine Fabre, a law officer, and of Victoire Salgues. The family was so poor that he was sent to live on the farm of his paternal grandmother.

Education

Fabre began his studies at the parochial school of his native village, then continued them, beginning in 1833, at the collège of Rodez. A scholarship student at the École Normale Primaire in Avignon, he obtained his brevet supérieur in 1842 and was appointed a teacher at the lycée of Carpentras in the same year. At Montpellier he prepared for his baccalauréat, which he passed, and then earned a double licence ès sciences in mathematics and physics. He next went to the lycée of Ajaccio, Corsica, as a physics teacher, remaining there until December 1851. Following this he taught in the lycée of Avignon (1853), then received the licence in natural history at Toulouse, and finally defended his thesis for the doctoral es sciences nature lies at Paris in 1854.

Career

Fabre devoted himself almost exclusively to the research on the biology and behavior of insects that was to make him one of the greatest figures of entomology. In 1855 he published his first work on a hymenopterous vespid (Cerceris) that paralyzes its prey (beetles). His second memoir (1857) was concerned with the hypermetamorphosis of the Meloidae (coleóptera). In 1859 Charles Darwin cited him in his Origin of Species, a valuable encouragement for a poorly paid young teacher.

In an attempt to improve his financial situation, Fabre undertook a research on the coloring principle of madder (alizarin), which he succeeded in isolating in 1866. For this discovery he was received in Paris by Napoleon III. But on his return to Avignon, Fabre learned that alizarin had just been obtained from coal tars and that his process had been superseded. He turned to writing textbooks and gave a free course on the sciences, at the same time forming a friendship with the philosopher John Stuart Mill, who was then living in Avignon. A victim of various jealousies and vexations, Fabre left that city in November 1870 and moved to Orange, and then in 1879 to Sérignan, where he devoted all his time to observations on the life and habits of insects.

Fabre’s scientific work includes the ten-volume Souvenirs entomologiques (1879-1907), which presents a considerable number of original observations on the behavior of insects (and also of arachnids); these had been preceded by various memoirs published as books or periodical articles (1855-1879).

It is the latter group of publications that contains Fabre’s principal discoveries: hypermetamorphosis of the Meloidae; the relationship between the sex of the egg and the dimensions of the cell among the solitary bees; the habits of the dung beetles; and the paralyzing instinct of the solitary wasps Cerceris, Sphex, Tachytes, Ammophila, and Scotia. These last researches, which posed the problem of instinct and its acquisition by insects, were much discussed and were the object of lively criticism by E. Rabaud. Recent works, such as those of A. Steiner (1962) on the wasp Liris nigra, which preys on crickets, confirm Fabre’s observations and show that the prey is a checkerboard of stimulating zones, each of which provokes a precise and practically unalterable response by the predator.

In addition, in order to earn a living, Fabre, between 1862 and 1901, wrote some forty works of scientific popularization, designed chiefly for the young and ranging from mathematics and physics to natural history.

He also composed poems in French and in Provencal; the latter resulted in his being called felibre di Tavan.

Achievements

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  Jean-Henri Fabre is remembered as a popular teacher, physicist, chemist and botanist. However, he is probably best known for his findings in the field of entomology, the study of insects, and is considered by many to be the father of modern entomology. He had the great merit of demonstrating the importance of instinct among the insects. Responsible for significant discoveries concerning the lives and habits of insects, he remains especially important in the history of science because of the popularity of his Souvenirs entomologiques; reading them led more than one person to become a naturalist.
  
  In 1856 Fabre was awarded the Prix Montyon (for experimental physiology) of the Instituí de France. For his research on the coloring principle of madder (alizarin) Fabre was awarded the Legion of Honor.
  
  His last home and office, the Harmas de Fabre in Provence is a museum devoted to his life and work. His insect collection is preserved in the Musée Requien in Avignon.
  
  The French post office commemorated Fabre in 1956 with a stamp depicting a portrait of him.

Works

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  • Récits sur les insectes, les animaux et les choses de l'agriculture 2002
  • The life and love of the insect 1911
  • Le scarabée 2007
  • Fabre's Book of Insects 1999
  • The Passionate Observer 1998
  • The Life of the Spider 1912
  • The Mason-Bees 1914
  • Bramble-Bees and Others 1915
  • The Life of the fly 1913
  • The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles 1919
  • The Wonders of Instinct: Chapters in the Psychology of Insects 1918
  • Field, Forest and Farm: Things Interesting to Young Nature-Lovers, Including Some Matters of Moment to Gardeners and Fruit-Growers 1919

Views

Although his works were admired by Darwin, Fabre was all his life opposed to evolution, remaining convinced of the fixity of species. For him, each animal species was created as we see it today, with the same instinctual equipment (whereas the modern explanation of instinct draws on the notion of natural selection).

Membership

On July 11, 1887 Fabre was elected a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences.

Personality

Fabre remains the very model of the self-taught scientist - solitary, poor, proud, and independent. He was also an attentive and minute observer and a writer of unquestionable talent.

Victor Hugo called Fabre "the Homer of the insects," and Charles Darwin referred to him as "the inimitable observer."

Connections

Fabre’s first marriage was to Marie Villard; they had at least three sons and one daughter. Having become a widower shortly after moving to Sérignan, he remarried to Marie-Josèphe Daudel and had a son and two daughters with her. One of his daughters married the physician G. V. Legros, who was his first biographer.

Father:

Antoine Fabre

Mother:

Victoire Salgues

Spouse:

Marie-Josèphe Daudel

late spouse:

Marie Villard

colleague:

Charles Darwin

References

• Small Wonders: Jean-Henri Fabre and His World of Insects
  2015