56 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



hemispheres; and about 4,000 species of their nearest relatives, the 

 locusts, or Acrididse, to which group the notorious migratory locusts 

 also belong. It is estimated that there are about 2,500 kinds of spec- 

 ters, or walking-sticks (Phasmidse), which inhabit tropical regions 

 chiefly and are noted for their close resemblance to twigs and leaves. 

 Much smaller is the number of those creatures called earwigs, although 

 they are neither worms nor crawl into the ears; scientifically they are 

 termed Dermaptera, and comprise about 500 species. Less noteworthy 

 are the 200 forms of small thrips, or Physopoda. The stately, but 

 harmless, praying-crickets, or Mantidse, are represented throughout the 

 world by only 800 different species. On the other hand, about 1,200 

 kinds of cockroaches, or Blattidae, are known, and this family unfor- 

 tunately includes the small Croton-bug and its larger black cousins. 

 In warm countries, with these troublesome creatures are associated 

 about 400 different species of white ants. The very small insects called 

 body-lice, book-lice or wood-lice, which belong to the Corrodentia or 

 Copeognatha, are represented in almost equal numbers. Mallophaga 

 (bird-lice, which should not be confounded with bird-ticks) already 

 number 1,300 species, for nearly every kind of bird has its special 

 parasite. On the other hand, luckily, only 50 species of true blood- 

 sucking lice have become known, a relatively high percentage of which 

 afflicts mankind. One hundred and sixty thousand species is certainly 

 not too large a figure to include the hosts of beetles, or Coleoptera, 

 which people every corner of the globe, and may be obtained in the 

 region of perpetual ice as well as in salt marshes. We are acquainted 

 with but 52,000 species of Hymenoptera, or membrane-winged insects, 

 among which are the many ' wild ' relatives of the honeybee, the colo- 

 nies of ants, the true wasps, digger-wasps, ichneumon-flies, gall-flies, 

 saw-flies, golden-wasps and wood-wasps. Of dragon-flies, or libellids 

 (Odonata), there may be about 2,300 different kinds at present de- 

 scribed, while 300 species of May-flies (Plecoptera) and stone-flies 

 (Perlidae) are recognized. True JSTeuroptera (netted-winged insects), 

 which also include the ant-lions and lace-winged flies, number 1,400 

 species; Panorpidse, or scorpion-flies, about 100, and caddice-flies, or 

 Phryganeidse, 1,200. After the beetles, the forms most abundant in 

 species are the butterflies, or Lepidoptera; of these science has dis- 

 closed the existence of about 55,000 species up to the present time. 

 Next come the much less noted two-winged insects, or Diptera, of 

 which two main groups, Orthorrhapha (midges, gnats, horse-flies, etc.) 

 and Cyclorrhapha (true flies), with 14,000 and 30,000 species, re- 

 spectively, share in the sum total of insect forces. The number of 

 fleas, or Suctoria, is small in comparison, only 100 species as yet being 

 known, one of which lives on the blood of mankind. Further, if the 

 30,000 kinds of bugs, cicadas and plant-lice included in the Hemiptera, 



