INTRODUCTION. 



The knowledge of entomology desired by farmers is, as a rule, 

 limited by the actual demands of profitable farming. A knowl- 

 edge of the life-histories of the Chinch-bug and Hessian Fly is 

 certainly a necessary requisite of the most profitable farming in 

 Kansas; one might even say of any profitable farming. The 

 fruit-grower should know something about borers and Codlin 

 Moths as well as about grafting. But more than this necessary 

 entomological knowledge — and this knowledge is all gathered 

 about the practical application of it, the how and why of remedies 

 — is not being loudly called for by the grain- and vegetable- and 

 fruit-growers. Hence entomological text-books are not crowding 

 everything else off the parlor tables in the farm homes; and a bug 

 is a bug and not much else, to the worker in the fields. It is a 

 fact, however, that the men who do pay some attention to the 

 bugs are helping themselves. For the intelligent application of 

 insecticides (insect-killing substances), some little should be known 



of the general economy of insect life, 

 and that little may be briefly told. 



Broadly speaking, insects may be 

 divided into two great groups, namely, 

 biting insects and sucking insects. 

 The biting insects have jaws, or man- 

 dibles, moving laterally, instead of 

 vertically as with us, and fitted i'or 

 tearing off and masticating foliage, 

 fruits, bark, and even hard wood. 

 They take into their mouths and swal- 

 low the succulent tissues of the j^lant 

 leaf or the dry, tough fibers of woody 

 tissue. They take "solid food." The 

 beetles and the grasshoppers are in- 

 sects possessing typical biting mouth- 

 mouth-plrtl!* '*'"^ parts. The sucking insects, on the 



Fig. 1. 



