Ri'RAL School Leaflet 1255 



Occasionally insects will be found that very closely resemble butterflies, 

 yet have some characteristics that are similar to those of moths. They 

 are the skippers, so named because of their peculiar skipping method 

 of flight. The antennas have knobs, but these knobs are drawn out 

 and turned back in the form of a hook. The body is rather stout. The 

 pupa is sometimes covered by a thin cocoon. The wings are held vertically 

 or horizontally when at rest. 



Boys and girls often ask what they shall feed moths and butterflies. 

 Many of the insects do not eat. Some sip the nectar of flowers or the 

 sap of trees. Oftentimes they will drink sweetened water or the juice 

 of fruit. 



An excellent book, which will afford a background for instruction on 

 insect life, and which would be a valuable addition to the school library 

 or to the teacher's personal library, is Insect Life, by J. H. Comstock. 

 (See page 1434) 



ARE INSECT FOES INCREASING > 

 Glenn W. Herrick 



We often hear our fathers say : 



" Why, I can remember when we didn't have any bugs to fight in 

 this country. I can remember when there were no potato bugs, and 

 when our cherries never had a worm in them, and when we used to get 

 apples out of my father's orchard without a speck on them or a worm 

 in them." 



Are these statements true in fact, or are they largely based on memories 

 made rosy by the passage of many years — memories of a boy who could 

 eat Baldwins from the tree in June and wormy apples by the dozen and 

 call them good? 



Away out in western Texas in a branch of the Toyah Valley, a little val- 

 ley following a beautiful stream between two magnificent spurs of the Davis 

 Mountains, apples, pears, grapes, and alfalfa grew in their pristine abun- 

 dance and perfectness a few^ years ago. Insect pests were unknown, and 

 the apples and the pears were exceptionally large in size, perfectly free from 

 knots or blemishes, and as smooth and shapely as the cheeks of a child. 

 It was a new region, practically untouched by the disturbing elements of 

 human civilization. So it was in the fruit sections of New York State 

 when they were first planted, but conditions are certainly not the same 

 to-day. It is safe to say that there are a dozen fruit pests in western 

 New York to-day that were unnoticed or unknown thirty years ago. 

 One has only to recall San Jose scale, blister mite and redbugs on apples, 

 and grape root-worm, to be reminded of the truth of the foregoing state- 



