424 ANlSrUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 196 2 



rapid multiplication by means of quickly developing, short cycle gen- 

 erations, and by rapidly evolving through ages of time they have be- 

 come highly adapted and perfectly fitted through mutation and 

 selection to every natural condition on the earth. 



The mammals in general and man in particular arrived in this 

 insect world long after the insects had taken possession of practically 

 every habitat on the earth. Primitive man arrived not more than a 

 million years ago — some authorities say about one-half million. ]SIod- 

 em man has been here not more than 50,000 years. He is not so well 

 adapted as the insect; he is a comparative newcomer. He spends 

 his time and efforts converting the materials of the natural world into 

 man-made structures and plantings. Unlike the insect, he does not 

 attempt to live in the natural world as he found it. 



The evolution of the insects was apparently not always successful 

 for in the late Carboniferous period we find enormous cockroaches 

 and dragonflies with a wing spread of more than 2 feet which ap- 

 parently have long since been lost as failures in a competitive organic 

 world. But see the successful mutants which have arisen from these 

 ancestors! The present-day species of roaches are the German, 

 American, Oriental, and others, which inhabit our homes and kitchens, 

 invade our restaurants, markets, and night-clubs, and are carried 

 everywhere in trucks, steamships, airplanes, and other conveyors in 

 all type of receptacles, whether they contain food, clothing, or other 

 materials. 



Insofar as historic records are available, man has in all ages since 

 his arrival on the earth been tormented by the ravages of insects 

 upon him directly or upon his food and possessions. On the other 

 hand, he has often turned to the insect as a source of nourishment 

 to sustain life. The authors who wrote the Bible point out the oc- 

 currence of many insects — ants, bees, locusts, lice, fleas, hornets, flies, 

 and moths, for example. They describe the terrific populations of 

 migratory locusts (grasshoppers) which completely destroyed the 

 crops and devastated the fields. This is similar to the devastations 

 of the forage crops of our own Plains States by migratory 

 grasshoppers — the Kocl^y Mountain locust — in the middle of the 19th 

 century. 



The ant and the bee are cited in the Bible as examples of industry 

 and aggressiveness. They are carved on Egyptian monuments. 

 Grasshoppers, and honey and manna as insect products, are listed as 

 foods which were apparently largely responsible for the sustenance of 

 the children of Israel while they were sojourning in the wilderness. 

 Honey was a marketable product several thousand years ago ; it was 

 used in sacrificial offerings and was believed by the ancient people to 

 have medicinal qualities. 



