CHAPTER V 



THE OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE 



FROM even a most cursory examination of the activities of 

 insects as they affect directly the human species, it is very 

 evident that insects are as a group highly injurious to man, 

 with their influence in this direction slightly tempered by a 

 small number of species that are directly beneficial. 



This is, however, a very unfortunate way in which to re- 

 gard the matter, although it is a viewpoint that has been 

 impressed upon the minds of many of us in early childhood. 

 Starting with the assumption that all animals were created 

 with a view toward their usefulness to man, the old-fashioned 

 pedagogue tried to fathom the depths of the divine mind, and 

 to ascertain in what way many obviously noxious ones might 

 fit into this scheme. Less orthodox, but still unfortunate from 

 the standpoint of biological understanding, is the still too 

 common attempt to regard all living things as either useful or 

 injurious to man. 



Nevertheless it would seem that for reasons of expediency, 

 the economic entomologist must regard quite a considerable 

 number of insects as falling into one or the other of these 

 mutually exclusive categories, regardless of any considera- 

 tion of the interdependence of different species, which he 

 cannot formulate in rather exact terms. Following this a 

 little further, it is clear that our practical dealings with in- 

 sects are necessarily confined almost entirely to the eradica- 

 tion or reduction of numerous species which are detrimental. 

 These include primarily the great variety that spread diseases 

 of man or of domesticated animals, those annoying to our- 

 selves or to domestic animals, those destructive to agricul- 

 tural crops and to useful wild plants, those detrimental to 

 forests, and those injurious to stored products. 



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