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ment and to pilace more confidence in those who have devoted themselves to the 

 arduous study of this infinitely numerous multitude of insects. We are all more 

 or less given to judging animals by their size and weights, a little in the same 

 way that we judge of our fellow-men ; nevertheless experience constantly teaches 

 us to the contrary. A dog causes us, in general, less terror than a wasp ; many 

 people would rather have a robber enter the house than a bat; and I am sure 

 that I had rather endure the fury of a mouse than the hunger of a flea — it is true 

 that I am not a woman ! In fact, size is nothing ; number is everything : now, the 

 insect has the enormous advantage of numbers. Nothing can resist him, no ve- 

 getation, life itself would not be possible upon our planet if the various means 

 of destruction Jeagued against him did not weaken his powers. 



The fecundity of the insect is prodigious; it surpasses anything of which 

 we can conceive. Here is one example from amongst a thousand : the hop plant- 

 louse counts thirteen generations in a year. Let us suppose for an instant that 

 the descendants of one female, only one, were not checked in any way ; at the 

 end of a year the descendants of this female would amount to TEN SEXTIL- 

 LIONS (10.000,000,000,000.000.000,000) of plant lice. Let us now try to form 

 some idea of this fabulous number; the velocity of light will serve us as a com- 

 parison. Now, we know that light travels a distance of 186,000 miles a second. 

 Let us suppose now that these ten sextillions of plant lice, each measuring less 

 than 0.0888 of an inch in length, are put end to end in a single line : well, leaving 

 the first aphis, a ray of light would only reach the last one after a period of 2,690 

 years. That is to say that the string of insects would lose itself beyond the limits 

 that mark the last stars visible through our most powerful telescopes. It is, 

 hoAvever, from thousands of millions of millions of individuals that each species 

 is developed. If it were possible throughout the entire world to take a census 

 of the flies, for example, or of the ants, still the numbers that we would obtain 

 would mean nothing to us, because they would be beyond our comprehension; it 

 would be to add to the six naughts of a million a succession of naughts to fill sev- 

 eral lines. 



But this is only the number of the individuals ; there is also the number of 

 the species. The list is an interminable one and is growing still longer from day 

 to day. A collection of 100,000 is not a very large collection compared to the 

 total number of species which inhabit alii the great land divisions of the globe. 

 Certain entomologists are of the opinion that the number is over a million. Once 

 complete — so to speak, because the thing is not possible — a catalogue of the 

 species of the province of Quebec would reach, in all probability, tweilve millions. 



Insects are not all injurious, certainly, but it is with insects as with people: 

 the bad are generally the most active. It takes at least ten virtues to counter- 

 balance a vice; it takes certainly one hundred useful species to counter-balance 

 an injurious species. In spite of the innumerable enemies encountered in all the 

 orders, of animals (mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, microbes) the villainous tent- 

 caterpillar has multiplied in certain years to such an extent as to strip all the 

 trees in a locality ; has it not even stopped trains from running on the railroads ! 

 I mention here only one species. M. Paul Noel, the learned entomologist who 

 directs the entomological laboratory of the Seine-Inferieur, has catalogued 12,000 

 species in France alone. If we were to draw up a list of the injurious species 

 which are to be found in our province we should certainly arrive at two or tjiree 

 thousand. The Co'leoptera alone would furnish us a list of more than five hun- 



