CANKEKWORMS 



By R. E. Snodgbass, 

 Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture 



Language is replete with terms that liken qualities of human 

 nature with the traits of animals, and fable writers of all times have 

 found an inexhaustible source of material for their stories in the 

 parallelisms between men and beasts. The insects, too, have served 

 in caricature as types of human character, though less accurately, 

 since they are less understood ; for even amongst them there are the 

 bold and the timid, the haughty and the meek, the nervous and the 

 phlegmatic, the obstreperous and the patient; there are those that 

 labor incessantly and those that accept conditions as they find them ; 

 there are the pugnacious, always looking for trouble, and those that 

 live by avoiding it ; there are the rapacious that seek the destruction 

 of others, and the peace-loving, who fight in defense only. 



Distinctions of this kind amongst animals, as amongst people, are 

 matters of temperament, but there is this difference between the two 

 cases in that, with people, temperamental traits are characteristic 

 of individuals, while, with animals, the differences are largely charac- 

 teristic of the species. Yet there are minor differences between 

 individual animals, and people also show strongly marked racial 

 traits of temperament which persist and intensify where races do not 

 commingle. 



At first thought Ave might not believe that the temperaments of 

 animals, and especially of insects, could have any relation to our 

 own other than an accidental resemblance. On second thought, 

 however, it seems entirely possible that all such manifestations may 

 be identical in the sense that they may be but outcroppings of a 

 common property inherent in living matter itself. Temperament is 

 merely the reaction of the individual to external conditions, and 

 with people who exercise no control over these reactions, tempera- 

 mental exhibitions may be just as spontaneous and irresponsible as 

 with insects. In man}'^ cases amongst animals a specific tempera- 

 ment is beneficial or is a necessary accompaniment of a special mode 

 of life. A predatory creature must be alert, quick of movement, 

 and aggressive; a vegetarian may be slow and placid, with a de- 

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