FRIENDS AND FOES 



159 



prove detrimental to health as well as highly offensive 

 to the senses. 



Insects are further valuable to man in that they 

 furnish food. Chief among the insect foods used by 

 man may be cited honey from the honey-bee, a nota- 

 ble article of food upon which is based a great and 

 world-wide industry. Manv insects furnish food for 



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poultry, fish, and song-birds ; being therefore indirectly 

 beneficial to man. 



In the matter of clothing it- is well to know that our 

 silk is derived win illy from insects. The delicate silken 

 fiber of which the cocoons of the silk-worm are made, 

 is the crude material from which the silk of commerce 

 is manufactured. 



The cochineal dyes, formerly so greatly used, are in- 

 sect products. Shellac and Chinese white wax are like- 

 wise products of insects. 



These are some of the principal relations which exist 

 between man and insects. Man is the dominant type, 

 and his appearance directly or remotely changes the 

 whole train of natural laws. We can readily see the 

 sequence in the statement of Wallace, that the more old 

 maids the more abundant the clover-seed crop, for the 

 maids protect the cats which kill the mice which rid the 

 nests of bumblebees which fertilize the clover-seeds. 



In our study of injurious and beneficial forms it be- 

 comes essential that we acquaint ourselves with the life 

 histories of the insects which affect us either beneficiallv 



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or otherwise, in order that if a check need lie made, we 

 may be aware of the most vulnerable point of the inju- 

 rious insect. We should likewise become acquainted 



