THE PLACE OF INSECTS 



CT^j^ n^ ATURAL history deals with all living things. These 

 ^^J fall Into two divisions, the plant kingdom and the 



animal kingdom. I.'.embers of these two kingdoms, while 

 unlike In many ways, have much In common. Green 

 plants, for Instance, utilize Inorganic substances 

 such as carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen. Iron, sul- 

 phur, lime, etc. for food and build their living protoplasm 

 wholly from such sources. All the other plants and all anlm.als 

 are, either directly or indirectly, entirely dependent upon 

 green plants as a source of food. The functions of respiration 

 and reproduction while differing in details, follow the same 

 general plans in these two kingdoms. Thus, m.any points of simi- 

 larity, and also numerous differences could be cited. 



V/hat many folks would call "kinds", the biologist calls 

 "species". All horses are one species, all dogs one species, 

 but there are many species of birds (robins, blue birds, ruby- 

 crovmed kinglets, Baltimore orioles, etc.), fish, oak trees 

 (ivhlte oak, black oak, shingle oak, bur oak, etc.) and many , many 

 species of insects. All the species (you will notice that the 

 word is spelled the same for both singular and plural) of plants 

 and anim:als that have comie to the attention of scientists have 

 been given a "scientific name" and a description so that the 

 species may be recognized when found again. 



Scientific names are in Latin and are the same the world 

 over. They consist of two words; first a Latin noun knovm as the 

 genus name which arr-ays begins with a capital letter and followed 

 by a Latin adjective (or noun in apposition) modifying this gen- 

 eric word and supposedly telling something about the plant or 

 animal to which the name belongs. This second word is the 

 "species name" and begins with a small or lower case letter. 

 These tvro words are printed in italics. ^Ihen written, or vjhen 

 italic type is not- available, the scientific name is underscored. 

 Species are occasionally divided into varieties in which case a 

 third nam.e is added which is also italicized or underscored. The 

 scientific name is follov/ed by the name or abbreviation of the 

 scientist who proposed the scientific name. This word, which is 

 knovm as the "author" or "authority" begins with a capital and 

 Is not italicized or underscored. If the species nam.e has been 

 referred to a new genus since It was first given, the author's 

 name will appear in parentheses, otherwise the parentheses should 

 not be used. 



Anybody may give any plant or animal any common name he 

 v/ishes but there is only one approved scientific namio for each 

 species. These comjnon names (or as Dr. Lutz aptly puts it "nick- 

 names") are not reliable and offer m^any opportunities for misun- 

 derstanding. 



Let us illustrate all this. The earliest experience in col- 

 lecting insects for many country children is with the "Colorado 

 Potato Beetle" at so much per hundred, or quart, but they are 

 not always called by that comjnon name. The scientific name is 

 Leptinotarsa decimlineata (Say) and would appear in exactly that 

 form in all languages. " Leptinotarsa " is the name of the genus. 

 It means "slender feet". Other beetles, e. g. Leptinotarsa 



