CHAPTER IV 



HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



IN the chapter on Insects and the Food Supply, a brief 

 reference has already been made to certain species of plant- 

 feeding insects that occur in stored food products. Insects of 

 this kind form a transition between those living at the ex- 

 pense of growing plants and another series which may be 

 conveniently referred to as household insects. 



As a highly social animal, man has lived in communities 

 since before the dawn of historic times. His relations with his 

 fellows have continued to grow more complex, but the asso- 

 ciation of families into more or less permanent households is 

 of such long and continuous standing that it has offered an 

 opportunity for many insects to take up their abode with him. 

 This is by no means strange, for it finds parallels among other 

 social animals like the ants and termites. These gregarious 

 insects almost invariably harbor in their nests, various non- 

 social insects, known as myrmecophiles and termitophiles. 

 These latter insects are highly modified species showing pe- 

 culiar adaptations for life with their social insect hosts. The 

 household insects associated with man are a very common- 

 place lot compared to the myrmecophiles and termitophiles, 

 a condition no doubt due to the keener senses of the ants and 

 termites in comparison with those of the human species, as 

 well as the comparatively smaller size of all insects in relation 

 to man. Like the less highly adapted myrmecophiles, the 

 tiny denizens of the human household live as tolerated or 

 persecuted guests, for hardly any would be considered as wel- 

 come additions by the ordinary person, no matter how fond 

 he might be of dogs, cats, canaries, or other household pets. 



Probably the most widespread and persistent insect visitor 

 in houses is the housefly, named Musca domestica by Linnaeus 



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