InThe Wonders of Instinct, Jean-Henri Fabrè tells the amazing tale of the Capricorn beetle (Cerambyx miles). Its larva spends three years tunnelling around in an oak tree. The beetle when hatched will be far too big to use this tunnel and it cannot chew through wood. So how will it escape? At the end of its journey, the larva seems to have a plan. “It stubbornly digs and gnaws to the very bark, of which it leaves no more intact than the thinnest film, a slender screen. Sometimes, even, the rash one opens the window wide. This is the Capricorn's exit-hole. The insect will have but to file the screen a little with its mandibles, to bump against it with its forehead, in order to bring it down” It then uses wood shavings to pad the walls, “with a fine swan's-down, a delicate precaution taken by the rough worm on behalf of the tender pupa.” The larva then positions itself correctly. “Should the grub forget this little formality, should it lie down to its nymphal sleep with its head at the back of the cell, the Capricorn is infallibly lost: his cradle becomes a hopeless dungeon.” Programming? Instinct? Survival tactic?
Fabrè The Wonders of Instinct 1918
Photograph courtesy of Wikipedia