Jean-Henri Fabre

Jean-Henri Casimir Fabre was a French naturalist, entomologist and author, renowned for his engaging writings on the life of insects. Fabre's work, characterised by a lively narrative style, brought the world of insects into the popular imagination, earning him the title of "father of modern entomology".

His most important work, the Souvenirs Entomologiques, even inspired Charles Darwin, who called Fabre "an inimitable observer".

Born in Saint-Léons in Aveyron, France, Fabre grew up in a poor family, which led him to educate himself. Despite these humble beginnings, he obtained a primary school teaching certificate at 19 and began his teaching career in Carpentras.

Fabre continued his studies while teaching, eventually securing positions in Ajaccio, Corsica, and later at the Lycée in Avignon. As a teacher, he was popular and respected for his knowledge of physics, chemistry and botany and for making complex subjects accessible.

Fabre's passion, however, was entomology. His approach was unique: instead of a detached scientific style, he adopted a more narrative form, writing biographical accounts of the lives of insects. "Others have reproached me for my style," Fabre wrote, "which does not have the solemnity, nay, the dryness of the schools. If I were to take them at their word, we are only profound on condition that we are obscure".

His method of combining rigorous observation with an engaging writing style made his work scientifically valuable and widely appreciated.

Among his many experiments, Fabre's demonstration of the behaviour of pine caterpillars is one of the most famous. By arranging them in a continuous loop, he showed how they could follow each other in a circle for days on end, highlighting the power of instinct over individual decision-making. Such observations underlined his belief in precise, careful study over broad theoretical speculation and set him apart from some contemporaries, including Darwin, whose theory of evolution Fabre approached with scepticism.

Fabre's influence extended beyond his scientific achievements. His house in Provence, known as the Harmas de Fabre, became a centre for entomological research and is now a museum dedicated to his life and work. His birthplace in Saint-Léons is the site of Micropolis, a museum celebrating his contributions to entomology.

Thanks to translations by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos, Fabre's work has been recognised in the English-speaking world.