224 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



I trust that I have succeeded in convincing my audience of the 

 important part that insects play in the community, and how vitally 

 they affect man in his life, his health and his pocket. I might add to 

 emphasize this still more, that were all natural checks removed from 

 plant-feeding insects for two successive years, not a green thing would 

 be left on the face of the earth ; and that with the same checks removed 

 from the forms parasitic and predatory on the higher animals, the 

 third year would probably see the end of all vertebrate terrestrial life. 



The questions will naturally arise — is there no brighter side to this 

 subject? Are not insects of some use, and do we not derive some bene- 

 fit or advantage from them? 



Both of these questions are answerable in the affirmative, for insects 

 are distinctly and importantly useful to man both directly and in- 

 directly, altogether aside from the fact that parasitic and predatory 

 species materially reduce the amount of injury that would otherwise be 

 caused by those already mentioned. 



Leaders among the directly beneficial species are the honey-bees and 

 silk worms. Bee products, wax and honey, amount to millions of dol- 



Fig. 16. Honey bee. 



Fig. 17. A burying beetle, 

 Necrophorus sp. 



lars annually, and there is no more attractive food than good honey 

 — a matter that is much more apjareciated in continental Europe, where 

 honey is a usual part of breakfast, than in the United States, where it 

 is rarely seen on our tables at any meal. Bees-wax is, of course, an 

 important commercial product, although its place for many purposes 

 has been usurped by the cheaper paraffin. 



As for silks, I would not dare to estimate the amount of money in- 

 vested in them annually. The silk worm makes up in value for much 

 of the injury caused by other caterpillars, and it would be well some- 

 times for our grand ladies in rustling garments to realize that they 

 owe a large percentage of their exterior magnificence to a nasty, incon- 

 spicuous caterpillar. 



