28 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE 



other things for the destruction of grain, forage 

 crops, foliage, fruit, and the produce of the truck 

 garden. They constitute by far the greater por- 

 tion of the class of insects, and are the chief pests 

 upon which the farmer vents his ire. They 

 include the caterpillars, locusts (grasshoppers), 

 crickets, army-worms, rose-beetles, cicadas (com- 

 monly called locusts), cotton boll-weevils, other 

 weevils, stink-bugs, plant-lice, and a myriad more. 

 These are utterly harmful to agriculture. 



Maintaining a continual warfare upon the veg- 

 etable-eaters are the second group, the predatory 

 species of the insect world. Although preda- 

 ceous in fact, all do not live directly by capturing 

 their enemies. Many, however, may be likened 

 to carnivorous animals. In their small way the 

 ground-beetles, robber-flies, certain bees, nu- 

 merous spiders, mantis insects, and the like are 

 utterly as savage as the lions and tigers of the 

 mammal world. They stalk their prey, spring 

 upon it, and rend it to pieces as ferociously as 

 any wolf or grizzly bear. 



Far more efficacious in their methods of 

 destruction are the parasitical insects. They are 

 gifted with the means of depositing eggs beneath 

 the tough skins of their victims. When the eggs 

 hatch, the larvae feed upon the flesh of their un- 

 fortunate host until the latter is so weakened 

 that it dies. Their work is more subtle than the 

 impetuous assaults of their more savage breth- 



