ANNUAL WINTER MEETING AT WARRENSBURG. 271 



habitat and fulfil the task assigned to them. This is one of many in- 

 stances where inspcts in pursuit of their own food or pleasure render 

 us indispensable service. 



Another class of beneficial insects are the scavengers. These are 

 found mainly among the beetles and the two-winged flies. The office 

 of these species is to clear from oif the face of the earth all decaying 

 and air-poisoning animal and vegetable matter. Summoned by their 

 keen powers of scent, they come in swarms from their various retreats 

 and set to work with incredible force and rapidity to remove the cause 

 of offense. This is done in different ways, each species having a plan 

 of its own. Should a dead animal lie unburied or uuburned for a few 

 hours, hundreds of flies, with gauzy wings and bodies, of burnished 

 green and gold, will be seen hovering about it and depositing on every 

 part eggs already'' at the stage of hatching, and in less than a day 

 countless larva^ will be engaged in absorbing and re-converting into 

 living tisfeue that which defiled the earth and air. Meanwhile carrion 

 and burying beetles are no less active, cutting off larger or smaller 

 portions and interring them for the sustenance of their young, which 

 considerately hold their unsavory banquets deep under ground, where 

 neither human eight nor smell can be offended. 



The decomposition of useless vegetable matter is hastened in sim- 

 ilar ways by other species of insects. And there are water scavengers 

 as well as those that operate on land, whose combined efforts greatly 

 aid in keeping pure and sweet, many otherwise disease breeding pools 

 and ditches. 



The amount of food which insects furnish to fish and to birds, in- 

 cluding many game birds and domestic fowls, is another not inconsid- 

 erable, though indirect, benefit which should be placed to their credit 

 by man. 



But the most generally recognized service for which the agricul- 

 turist is indebted to insects is from those species to which, in the per- 

 fect economy of nature, is assigned the task of keeping certain other 

 species in check. These may be divided into two classes, cannibal or 

 predatory insects and true parasites. All the orders of insects have 

 representatives in the former of these classes and nearly all in the 

 latter, but, broadly speaking, the predatory species occur among the 

 beetles and true bugs while the parasites are mainly two-winged or 

 four-winged flies. 



The cannibal beetles include many of the most beautiful forms 

 and colors to be found in the order of the coleoptera. At the head of 

 this list may be mentioned the tiger-beetles, (genera tetracha and ci- 

 cindela,) swift in running and flight, of medium size — from one-half to- 



