STORY - Following the leader: Is this true?

[Stelenes at aol.com]

Regarding this anecdote from the "great French naturalist Jean Henri Fabre" 
who had the processionary caterpillar experiment where they walked themselves 
to death and expired at the same instant:  

Unfortunately someone has mangled the original story beyond belief to fit 
some nice moral lesson which I happen to agree with.

The moth was probably the Pine Processionary Moth (Thaumetopoea pityocampa 
Schiff.).  The insect is a severe pest in Mediterranean countries and 
defoliates pines.

The experiment started on January 30 1896 and was not published in a peer 
reviewed scientific journal that I am aware, but in a rambling book called 
the Life of the Caterpillar in 1916 after his death at age 92.

At the time of the experiment, the 73 year old naturalist (who was a good 
illustrator especially of mushrooms) insisted all of his books be printed in 
unintresting no frills formats that would bore many.  He had financial 
problems and the poor man's plight was published in the newspaper in 1908, in 
his upper 80's, when many French suddenly patronized him in money to help him 
out.  (his comment:  too late to serenade me now...)

The caterpillars (at least most of them) did not walk themselves to death, 
although they were certainly weakened after the experiment.

The pines were Aleppo pine and black Austrian pine on an experimental plot of 
land he had.

He was quite sadistic to the caterpillars in the way he carefully studied for 
some time how he could trick their programmed processionary charastics to 
cause them the problem he wrote about.  As the caterpillars walk they secrete 
(like silkworms) a shiny thread which guides the followers path.  The almost 
invisable thread turned into a thick silvery ribbon by the time the 
experiment was done.

Contrary to the anecdote with a moral which says they walked to death day and 
night, the caterpillars did not march for about 50% of the time.  On the cold 
nights they went inside the flower pot to rest.

Contrary to the anecdote there were no pine needles inside the pot, only a 
plam tree.  The tortured caterpillars aimlessly looked for their foodplant 
all over the palm but returned without success obviously.

Contrary to the anecdote, whenever problems in the march happened, they would 
pause.  While the natural tendency for the caterpillars would be to break the 
loop, the angles of the flower pot cruelly sent them away only to recross the 
loop, rather than find a new path as they would in nature.  On the few 
ocassions they did make it over the outer edge to investigate escape, the 
length of the thread from which they dangled was a very insecure situation 
compared to the length of the pot, though he did put some pine needles on the 
ground by the pot as a tease.

Contrary to the anecdote, they (or at least most) did not die when the loop 
finally was broken after seven days and the free threads around the sides of 
the pot from failed escape attempts were sufficient to permit.

That is some motivational story.  Reminds me a lot more of some people I 
know.  Especially interesting is the moral that the brainy/social 
caterpillars "confused activity with accomplishment."  Unfortunately, even if 
you accept the whole thing on faith, there is a question I would have:  How 
did all the cats die at the same instant.  If they were really following the 
leader, the first one to croak would have begun to upset the progression and 
the last one would be pretty "lonely" surrounded by corpses, which mostly 
might have fallen into what sound like the week old pine needles.

Doug Dawn
Woodland CA 

"Victor Yue" wrote:

Hi folks,
I have just received this email that uses an analogy of the caterpillars. I am
seeking your expertise advice again, is this true? And if so, what 
caterpillars
are these?

Thanks and with best regards,

Victor


------------------------------
Following the Leader
------------------------------
John Henry Fabre, the great French naturalist, conducted a most unusual
experiment with some processionary caterpillars.  These caterpillars
blindly follow the one in front of them.  Hence, the name.  Fabre carefully
arranged them in a circle around the rim of a flowerpot, so that the lead
caterpillar actually touched the last one, making a complete circle.  In
the center of the flowerpot he put pine needles, which is the food of the
processionary caterpillar.  The caterpillars started around this circular
flowerpot.

Around and around they went, hour after hour, day after day, night after
night.  For seven full days and seven full nights, they went around the
flowerpot.  Finally, they dropped dead of starvation and exhaustion.  With
an abundance of food less than six inches away, they literally starved to
death, because they confused activity with accomplishment.

Many people make the same mistake and, as a result, reap only a small
fraction of the harvest life has to offer.  Despite the fact that untold
wealth lies within reach, they acquire very little of it because they
blindly, without question, follow the crowd in a circle to nowhere.  They
follow methods and procedures for no other reason than "It's always been
done that way."

Zig Ziglar