FOOD OF INSECTS 0.3 



has passed through the alimentary canal is eaten again txnd 

 again until the last atom of nutriment has been abstracted 

 and it has no fiu'ther value as food. What is then excreted is 

 either removed from the nest or used to plaster the pitch- 

 dark corridors along which the insects are ever ceaselessly 

 hurrying. Not only do they devour food which has come away 

 from one end of the alimentary canal, but they frequently 

 regurgitate food through the mouth to supply a hungry 

 colleague. Should a termite fall ill or be in any way disabled, 

 the weakling is devoured alive by other members of the ant- 

 heap. White-ants, like certain tropical tree ants, are agri- 

 culturists. They cultivate certain fungi, planting the spores 

 in appropriate places. They devour the mature fungi. 



There is hardly anything that some insects will not eat 

 and thrive on. The caterpillars of the Tinea moth feed on 

 the hairs of fur which consist of keratin, a substance allied 

 to protein, a very dry diet — on deers' horns, the hooves of 

 horses, etc. Many bugs and plant-lice live upon sap; other 

 bugs, flies, gnats, mosquitoes and lice suck the blood of verte- 

 brates ; and like most blood-sucking insects they take a large 

 part in spreading diseases, amongst man at least. Mosquitoes 

 infect human beings with malaria. Lice give rise to trench 

 fever and typhus fever. Flies convey (most of them me- 

 chanically) the germs of typhoid fever. The blood-sucking 

 insects are very persistent and very successful in attaining 

 their object. I used to be told when I lived in Southern Italy 

 that if you placed the legs of your bed in iron basins filled 

 with water and placed the bed in the centre of the room you 

 would fescape being bitten by bugs, but this is not true. They 

 crawl up the walls and along the ceiling and drop down on 

 you. As a great American poet wi'ites: 



The LightninCT-bug has wings of gold, 



The June-bug wings of flame, 

 The Bed-bug has no wings at all, 



But it gets there all the same ! 



The entrance to the mouth of the house-fly is so minute that 

 it has to take in its food always in a state of solution. Solid 

 particles cannot pass through it. Hence, when you see a 

 fly feeding on a piece of sugar, you may be certain that it 



