JOURNAL 



OF 



ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 



OFFICIAL ORGAN AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS 



Vol. 2 OCTOBER, 1909 No. 5 



RELATION OF INSECTS TO HUMAN WELFARE^ 

 By H. A. GossARD 



Long ages before the earliest mammal appeared on earth multitud- 

 inous individuals representing diversified types of insect life had 

 found congenial homes in prairie, forest and desert, if such terms may 

 be correctly applied to landscapes differing in most respects from any 

 which have ever been seen or named by human kind. Above the earth, 

 on its surface, in its caves, and on and in its waters these creatures 

 fed and multiplied as now. AVell back towards the morning twi- 

 light of geological history, in the Silurian age, and in greater num- 

 bers in the Devonian, when the fishes represented the cuhninating 

 point reached by the animal kingdom and a true forest vegetation for 

 the first time clothed the youthful world, the types represented by 



^Tlie following paper was compiled by the writer for the iuformatiou of the 

 Century Club, a small association of literary, scientific and professional men 

 of Wooster, O. The only merit, if any. to which the paper can lay claim is 

 that of an example of popular writing that helps to mold a friendly sentiment 

 among intelligent and influential men. and eventually brings enlarged resources 

 for work and investigation to the economic entomologist. A careful scrutiny 

 of the composition will disclose among the authorities and papers which have 

 been drawn upon the following in particular, from which, in some cases, quo- 

 tations have been made with but little or no change from the original text : 



Second Report United States Entomological Commission on the Rocky Moun- 

 tain Locust. 



Review, in Science, by Doctor Howard of the History of Economic Ento- 

 mology for Fifty Years. 



The Gypsy Moth, by E. H. Forbush. 



The Brown-Tail Moth, Fex*nald and Kirkland. 



Flies and Ticks as Agents in Distribution of Disease, by F. V. Theobald. 



The Economic Status of Insects as a Class, by Dr. L. O. Howard. 



