SOME REMARKS ON THE INFLUENCE OF INSECTS ON 

 HUMAN WELFARE ' 



By Cakl D. Duncan 



Professor of Entomology and Botany 

 San Jose State College 



The ways in which insects affect human welfare are so numerous 

 and diverse that no approach to completeness of treatment can be made 

 in a brief paper. In the present instance, however, completeness is 

 not needed, nor in fact is even a comprehensive sampling. A consider- 

 ation of certain aspects of the subject will suffice, for the object of the 

 paper is to advance the thesis that the time has come for entomologists 

 to present to the public, on whose support the progress of entomologi- 

 cal research almost entirely depends, a more balanced interpretation of 

 insect and human relations than that usually current. 



The subject of insects and human welfare is not new, and certain 

 aspects of it have been developed at length in a great variety of books, 

 technical bulletins, magazine articles, newspaper stories, and even 

 reports over the radio. The relationships that have been most fre- 

 quently stressed, perhaps naturally enough, have been those in which 

 insects appear as enemies of man. It is not my desire to minimize the 

 damage inflicted on man by those insects which are agricultural or 

 forest pests, transmitters of disease, or are in other ways inimical to 

 man's well-being. Such damages, however, and the insects responsible 

 for them, should be viewed in proper perspective. In no other way 

 can the real importance of insects as a whole be understood correctly 

 and evaluated properly. 



It has long been apparent to biologists, whenever insect and human 

 relations are viewed in their entirety, that the insect species which are 

 injurious or antagonistic to human welfare actually constitute only a 

 small proportion of the total of insect life and that the great majority 



1 Tresiflentlal address read before the Pacific Coast Entomological Society, January 4, 

 1947. Reprinted by permission from Tlie Pan-Pacific Entomologist, vol. 23, No. 1, January 

 1947. 



The aim of this paper is to focus attention on influences exerted by Insects in ways that 

 are independent of those due to conflict among the insects themselves. Consequently, the 

 discussion omits entirely the well-known beneflcient aspect of the work of parasitic and 

 predatory Insects in controlling species that are real or potential pests, in order that other 

 and less familiar benefits that man owes to insects may be given due emphasis. 



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