THE MUSEUM 



167 



to deposit their egfjs. It is to their 

 imiustrious efforts that the wholesome 

 air is not tainted with decaying car- 



cases, as it might he otherwise. 



Be- 



sides the two cases I have mentioned, 

 there are many others I might cite. 

 Wo are famihar with the effects of the 

 honey-bee. and silk worm, and the 

 beautiful dyes made from the dried 

 bodies of Coccus cacti'ia, a lady-bug 

 which hails from Mexico. That tine 

 variety of white wax we sometimes 

 see, is the excreton of tiny insect that 

 lives upon an evergreen tree in China 

 and Siberia. Shellac and our lac 

 dyes are made from a resinous matter 

 execreted by Cdrtcria Incia. 



Insects have even contributed to- 

 ward the food supply of certain na- 

 tions. The Arabs eat some species of 

 locust and consider them a great deli- 

 cacy. The aborigines of Australia eat 

 many varieties of CoUoptcra particul- 

 arly I.oiigicorns and Ryncltophora. 

 They also cat various hairless larvte. 

 The Mexicans eat a species of water 

 insect and the people of Egypt eat 

 them also. Insect eggs are considered 

 a dish fit only for the rich in Siam. 



They have a greater geographical 

 distribution than any other class of the 

 animal kingdom. Indeed no part of 

 the earth's surface can be said to be 

 free from the little beings. Fossil re- 

 mains have been found in the Arctic 

 regions at the very highest point reach- 

 ed by man. Several species of butter- 

 flies htve been found as far north as 

 eighty-three degrees North latitude. 

 Some species of water striders [Hy- 

 drobatidic) are found on the ocean 

 many miles from land. But as a gen- 

 eral rule the largest and most brilliant 

 species are found in the tropics; the 

 same as the most ferocious beasts are 

 found in the warmer latitudes. 



They greatly outnumber the other 

 classes, and as a great portion of the 

 globe has never been entomologically 

 explored, it is safe to say the number 

 will be greatly increased as the science 

 advances. The late Dr. Riley esti- 

 mates the number of species of insects 



to be not less than 16,000,000. The 

 Coleoptera is the largest of the orders. 

 Packard says that the number of liv- 

 ing species is between 60,000 and So,- 



000 of which 8,000 are known to in- 

 habit the United States. 



We are very prone to boast of the 

 achievements our own genious has 

 wrought but did you ever think that 

 insects have forestalled us in many of 

 our useful arts.' Yet such is the fact. 



1 claim that insects have a large 

 amount of ingenuity, yes, intelli- 

 gence, in contradistinction to that 

 vague, ill-used term instinct — of per- 

 severance, and patience. We are too 

 quick to conclude that because man is 

 big and mighty, that gray matter can- 

 nyt exist in small organi^atons.. A 

 greater mistake than this was never 

 made. 



Did you ever watch a spider con- 

 structing his web and note the intelli- 

 gence shown by it in fastening each 

 thread securely and in having each 

 line cross at the proper angle; and the 

 perseverance and patience shown b}' 

 it in re-spinning when ruthless hands 

 have repeatedly destroyed the delicate 

 fabrice.' Or consider the genius of 

 the bee in constructing its cells with 

 almost mathematical exactitude.' A 

 few moments thought will covince you 

 of the correctness of my claim. 



Our greatest engineers and archit- 

 ects aro outdone by so insigniffcant 

 an insect as an ant. They dig galler- 

 ies and tunnels many times greater 

 than those to which we are accustom- 

 ed to point with pride; and were it 

 possible for human ingenuity to con- 

 struct edifices as great in proportion 

 to us as their structures are to them, 

 they would be appalling in their mag- 

 nitude. The builders of Babel were 

 not the first to use stone and cement. 

 The stone-mason bees build their 

 houses of grains of sand formed into 

 masses with their own viscid secre- 

 tions. And that great invention the 

 diving-bell was first used by an aqua- 

 tic spider. 



All their operations are performed 



