440 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



this great devourer of insects is coming more into public favor, 

 as its habits are more generally known. It is still, however, by- 

 many persons, viewed only with disgust, as it can lay no claim 

 to beauty of form or gracefulness of motion. Intelligent culti- 

 vators, however, will not suffer toads to be annoyed, and will 

 afford them protection by placing boards in their haunts, under 

 which they may hide, and screen themselves from the scorching 

 rays of the sun. 



But the chief instruments employed by nature in destroying 

 or lessening the number of insects, are insects themselves, 

 namely, those which feed upon others. Among the most useful 

 of these destroyers, I would mention the ichneumon flies, the 

 females laying their eggs entirely in the bodies of other insects, 

 which being hatched, the young parasites fatten on the entrails 

 of their prey, thus literally devouring them alive. 



The success with which human knowledge can oppose the 

 increase and de})redations of insects, depends very much upon 

 our acquaintance with them, and their economy. For it is by 

 this familiarity with their habits, that we shall discover that there 

 are many of them to be regarded as our auxiliaries and worthy 

 of preservation, Avhile others will be found to be harmless and 

 should be permitted to live out their short period of existence, 

 and enjoy unmolested their few sunny days, or perhaps hours. 

 This knowledge will lead us to avoid the indiscriminating mode 

 practiced by some persons, in destroying the noxious and innox- 

 ious insects together. Such, for instance, as the hanging of 

 bottles or other vessels partly filled with sweetened water, on 

 trees, to entrap all sorts of insects to their destruction. These, 

 upon examination, I have found to contain chiefly small bees 

 and wasps, those honest little paper makers, and honey seekers, 

 together with various kinds of flies, possessing, as we may sup- 

 pose, a sweet tooth, but innocent of the charge of liaving com- 

 mitted any depredations on vegetation. 



The small, handsome beetles, known as lady-birds, ( Cocci- 

 nella,^ are often destroyed from the mistaken notion that they 

 cause the appearance of the plant-louse, (^Aphis.') This belief 

 probably arises from the fact, that they are frequently found 

 together. But we should class the lady-bird and its larva among 

 our useful insects, as it feeds entirely upon the plant louse. The 

 careful observer will likewise notice, attendant upon these greedy 



