The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles

Jean-Henri Fabre spent decades watching insects with the patience of a saint and the eye of a poet. In this landmark work, he turns his gaze to the glow-worm, that strange luminous creature of summer nights, revealing a predator far more terrifying than its gentle glow suggests. With surgical precision, the glow-worm paralyzes its prey, the snail, with a bite that transforms the hard-shelled mollusk into a living, defenseless puree, consumed at leisure. This is science written as close drama, where watching an insect for six hours yields revelations no laboratory could produce. The book extends beyond the glow-worm to explore the broader world of beetles, their evolutionary marvels, their hunting strategies, their hidden dramas unfolding in every garden and field. Fabre's genius lies in making the ordinary extraordinary. A walk through the grass becomes a journey through miracles. This is the book that turned generations of readers into lifelong watchers of the small and so often overlooked.