8 Bugs, Butterflies, and Beetles 



There is nothing about the beautiful butterflies 

 and big moths or even the beetles which need offend 

 the sensibilities of the most squeamish and silly 

 people; there is notliing creepy or uncanny about 

 them, but one cannot truthfully say the same of the 

 tribe of bugs. The very fact of their being called 

 bugs tells us that they were looked upon as unpleas- 

 ant things. Xevertheless the bugs are verj^ impor- 

 tant in this world and consequently are interesting 

 creatures, hence a good collection of them is most 

 valuable. 



Many of the bugs are quite large, but although 

 they are big, they are not the big bugs of human 

 society, neither are they bug-a-boos, bug-bears or 

 the inhabitants of bug-houses; they are the creat- 

 ures naturalists call "Hemiptera." But from the 

 foregoing you can see that the slang term " bug " 

 for "bug-house" is only using the word with the 

 old meaning of " bug " as a terror, as a nightmare ; 

 consequently it is very nearly correct to speak of 

 a lunatic asylum as a "bug-house," in other words 

 a " nightmare house," for if that term does not 

 describe it, it will be difficult to find a better one 

 in the dictionary. 



