432 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1962 



clothing. Wlien white garments are spread upon the shrubbery to 

 dry, these brilliantly colored leafhoppers hop upon the clothing, 

 where their conspicuous color is emphasized by the white background. 



Insects are also used in making jewelry. In some tropical countries 

 the natives make necklaces of "ground pearls," the wax cysts of female 

 scale insects of the genus Margarodes. The wings of morpho butter- 

 flies, brilliant bluish butterflies occurring in South America, are often 

 mounted mider glass and made into trays, pictures, and certain types 

 of jewelry. Showy insects mounted in plastic or under glass are 

 sometimes made into such things as paj)erweights and book-ends. 



During the past few years the department of fine arts at Ohio State 

 University has annually requested certain of these insects with bril- 

 liant coloring or exquisite patterns for use in its laboratories, so that 

 students specializing in fine arts might become acquainted with this 

 source of material and might have an opportunity to use some of 

 these designs in their period of training. 



The recreational value of insects. — Insects are fascinating animals 

 when one takes the time to observe them or begins to study them 

 carefully. Therefore, many persons find in the study of insects a 

 stimulating hobby and a means of recreation, just as intriguing and 

 beneficial as any other type of nature study. The interest in insect 

 study leads to collecting and field study and to observations of habits 

 and interrelations of insects with insects, insects with plants and with 

 other biologic forms. The collecting, hiking, field activity, and 

 mountain climbing serve as an excellent form of recreation. The 

 scientific and educational values of such collections are also very 

 important phases of the use of insects as a hobby. Some of the finest 

 collections of certain groups of insects that we have in the world today 

 have been formed in this way and are often handed down for several 

 generations. Several of these have been developed in the United 

 States, but this country has fallen far behind the European and Asiatic 

 countries in the practice of collecting insects as a hobby. This prac- 

 tice is found especially in Japan and certain of the central European 

 countries. Scientists from these countries who have visited the United 

 States during the past few years have expressed their astonishment at 

 the lack of interest by the American people and the comparatively 

 few amateur entomologists found in our country. 



INSECT LIABILITIES— THE DESTRUCTIVE 



The liability side of the ledger is illustrated by the insects which 

 destroy crops, eat through the wood of houses and other build- 

 ings, make attacks upon supplies of food in pantries and larders, 

 and pierce the skin of our bodies, thereby injecting deadly disease 

 organisms into the blood. Insects eat, steal, or destroy one-third of 

 everything which man grows and stores for the future. This includes 



