i86 INSECTS 



way and in a remarkably short time nothing but the 

 bony framework remains. 



Hardly has a cow dropped a mass of excrement 

 in the pasture, before it is covered with flies absorbing 

 the moisture, helping to form a dry outer coating and 

 ovipositing for maggots to help reduce the half-decayed 

 mass into fragments that may be mingled with or ab- 

 sorbed by the soil. If, after a dropping has been in 

 the field forty-eight hours, it is broken up in a pail of 

 water, the number of specimens and species that will 

 come to the surface is startling. 



Is a forest giant stricken and borne to the ground 

 by wind, flood or lightning — immediately insects of 

 many sorts attack and begin to reduce it to dust, con- 

 tinuing their work until nothing remains. And so of 

 all organic matter in which life is waning or from which 

 it has departed — such matter is prey to insects and they 

 are never backward in fulfilling their duty. 



This scavenger function is by no means a "low," 

 or "primitive" habit; it does not exist in the lowest 

 orders at all and is best developed in the Colcoptera 

 and Diptera, which are among the highly specialized 

 and dominant types. To be sure the Thysanura are 

 largely feeders on the products of decay and hence 

 may seem to be entitled to rank as scavengers; but 

 they rather come after decay and feed on its products, 

 hence their presence is merely indicative of moisture 

 and decay produced by other causes. 



The Termites among the Neuropterous orders are 

 feeders on wood and other vegetable products, but they 

 invade rather for building purposes and are never 

 found in really decaying material. 



The order Hemiptera contains no scavengers among 

 either the Homopiera or Heteroptcra and stands entirely 

 free from even a tendencv in that direction. 



