Jean Henri Fabre – Biography of Jean Henri Fabre

Jean-Henri Casimir Fabre He was born in Saint-Léons, Aveyron, France, on December 22, 1823; he was the son of Antoine Fabre, “a homme de chicane“(a kind of law enforcement officer), and Victorie Salgues. He began his studies at the parochial school of his hometown, and then followed them, from 1833, at the College of Rodez. Thanks to a scholarship At the Avignon Primary Normal School, he obtained his Superior brevet in 1842 and was appointed professor at the Carpentras institute in the same year.In Montpellier he prepared for his baccalauréat (baccalaureate), graduating with a double degree in mathematics and physics. The next step was the Ajaccio institute of Corsica, as a professor of physics, staying there until December 1851. After this he taught at the Avignon lycée (1853), and then received the license in natural history from Toulouse, and finally defended his thesis for the doctorat ès sciences Naturelles in Paris in 1854. Thereafter, Fabre he devoted himself almost exclusively to research on the biology and behavior of insects, becoming one of the great figures of entomology.

In 1855 Fabre published his first work on a hymenoptera vespid (Cerceris) that paralyzed its prey (beetles). His second book (1857) dealt with the hypermetamorphosis of the Meloidae (coleoptera). In 1856 Fabre he was awarded the Montyon Prize (for experimental physiology) from the Institut de France, and in 1859 Charles Darwin cited him in his “Origin of Species,” a valuable encouragement to a poorly paid young teacher.

In an attempt to improve your financial situation, Fabre carried out research on the coloring principle of coal (alizarin), which he managed to isolate in 1866. This discovery led to him being awarded the Legion of Honor, and he was received in Paris by Napoleon III. But on his return to Avignon, Fabre he learned that the alizarin had been obtained from coal tar and that his process had been superseded. He then devoted himself to writing textbooks and gave a free course on science; at the same time, he struck up a friendship with the philosopher John Stuart Mill, who was then living in Avignon.

Victim of various jealousies and dislikes, Fabre he 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 customs of insects. On July 11, 1887, he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, and his jubilee was celebrated on April 3, 1910.

The first marriage of Fabre it was with Marie Villard (October 30, 1844); they had three sons and a daughter. After being a little widowed, he moved to Sérignan; he remarried and had a son and two daughters by his second wife. One of her daughters married the doctor GV Legros, who was her first biographer.

The scientific work of Fabre included ten volumes of the Entomological Souvenirs (1879-1907), than those who presented 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 magazine articles (1855-1879).

This last group of publications contains the main discoveries of Fabre: hypermetamorphosis of Meloidae; the relationship between egg sex and cell dimensions among solitary bees; the habits of dung beetles; and the paralyzing instinct of the solitary wasps Cerceris, Sphex, Tachytes, Ammophila and Scolia.

These latest investigations, which raised the problem of instinct and its acquisition by insects, were much discussed and were strongly criticized by E. Rabaud. Recent works, such as those by A. Steiner (1962) on the wasp Liris nigra, which feeds on crickets, confirm the observations of Fabre and they show that prey is like a chessboard of stimulating zones, each of which elicits a precise and virtually unalterable response to the predator.

Although his works were admired by Darwin, Fabre he was all his life in opposition to evolution, he was convinced of the fixity of the species. For him, each animal species had been created as we see it today, with the same instinctual equipment (whereas the modern explanation of instinct is based on the idea of natural selection).

Fabre had the great merit of demonstrating the importance of instinct among insects, while some of his predecessors (JCW Illiger, Jean Th. Lacordaire) assumed that insects were gifted “with the reasoning or the invention of powers comparable to those of higher animals, and of man“(J. Rostand,” Jean-Henri Fabre “, p. 157).

Responsible for important discoveries related to the life and habits of insects, Fabre it continues to be especially important in the history of science, due to the popularity of its Entomological Souvenirs; his reading led more than one person to become a naturalist.

Also, in order to earn a living, FabreBetween 1862 and 1901, he wrote some forty popular science works, designed primarily for young people and ranging from mathematics and physics to natural history.

He also composed poems in French and Provençal; the latter resulted in out called Felibre di Tavan.

Fabre he remains the same model of the self-taught scientist-loner, poor, proud and independent. He was also an attentive observer and a writer of unquestionable talent, who was even nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature.