NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



The majority of species of moths and butterflies 

 lay their eggs in clusters on trees or other vegetation. 

 The much despised Cape sparrow and other seed- 

 eating birds, as well as a hundred other species of 

 small birds, are particularly fond of these eggs and the 

 newly hatched larvae, and the uninformed observer, 

 seeing them thus employed on his fruit or other trees, 

 hastily concludes they are devouring the young shoots, 

 buds, flowers, or fruit. Moths hide away by day and 

 issue forth at night to lay their eggs. It is the business 

 of birds to know where to search for these inveterate 

 enemies of man, and they perform their work well and 

 faithfully. 



The little white eye (Zosterops), which associates in 

 small flocks of a dozen and more, makes a thoroughly 

 systematic search for the eggs and young larvae on 

 trees and shrubs, and the small amount of damage it 

 causes to soft, ripe fruit in an orchard does not amount 

 to more than 10 per cent, of the good it accomplishes 

 in clearing the orchard of a number of insect pests, 

 including the destructive fruit fly, unless, of course, 

 its numbers are abnormal. 



On turning over the pages of a standard work on 

 economic entomology, the mind is bewildered and 

 staggered at the host of species of insects and allied 

 forms of life which prey upon man, his domestic 

 animals, and the produce of his lands. 



Man is fighting against his insect enemies for his 

 very existence, and it is only by utilising the services 

 of trained entomologists, ornithologists, naturalists, 

 and other men of science that he will ultimately emerge 



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