28 



Bugs, Butterflies, and Beetles 



We will not carry this comparison any further 

 because this book is about bugs, butterflies and 

 beetles and not comparative anatomy, but it is im- 

 portant that you understand in a rough way just 

 how like or, if you choose, unlike, we are to these 

 tiny creatures. 



To make an insect of a man, you would have to 

 prolong the man's body way down below his knees, 

 ^ push his skeleton out in the 

 front, give him another pair of 

 legs, cover his back with a 

 shell like a turtle and make 

 him creep on his feet with the 

 front side of his body next to 

 the ground. There are other 

 things you would have to do 

 with his back. You would 

 have to arrange for wings; in fact you would 

 have to do so much to the man to make an insect 

 of him that the job would not be worth while, 

 besides which it would not be exactly proper to so 

 treat a man, because according to many scientists 

 it has taken centuries and centuries for man to 

 evolve, that is, to grow from some sort of pulp 

 or jelly-fish to a land animal, to a missing link, 



