36 Journal of the Mitchell Society [December 



Yet I am sure that these dry as dust facts cannot impress you with 

 the wonders of insects' hfe cycles. Neither do they answer the thou- 

 sand and one questions that you might ask in regard to this subject. 

 In the first place we might ask why is there any metamorphosis at all? 

 And our answer is of course an indirect one as all that we can do is to 

 point out its all but universal occurrence among insects and to call at- 

 tention to the fact that the groups without metamorphosis are simply 

 a small remnant of what was perhaps a mighty race, — - a race not in 

 the direct line of the ancestry of the higher insects but a branch from 

 that ancient worm-like tracheated ancestor of the insects. The ad- 

 vantages of such a metamorphosis are many. It leaves the nymph, 

 naiad or larva, the growing period free to assimilate food and store 

 up energy while the adult is given excellent powers of locomotion so 

 that it may roam far and wide searching for suitable feeding grounds 

 for the next generation. 



But why weary you further by recounting these thrice told tales 

 when a few minutes spent in watching a butterfly emerge from its 

 chrysalis or a larva change to a pupa will bring you closer to nature 

 and impress you more with the wonders of metamorphosis than any- 

 thing I might say. 



The Tax to Insects. 



Entomologists, especially economic entomologists, in our experi- 

 ment stations and departments of agriculture, appreciate, in a vague 

 way at least, the annual loss occasioned by insects but the figures are 

 so startling and so beyond the realm of our ordinary everyday finan- 

 cial dealings that they make little or no impression. For instance I 

 made recently a rather careful estimate of the loss to the farmers 

 in North Carolina last year caused by insects and was somewhat 

 startled myself to find that it totalled no less than $84,750,000.00, as 

 shown by the following table: 



