Sec. 12.] 



ENTOMOLOGICAL. 



203 



SECTION XII.-ENTO:\rOLOGICAL 



/liat arc Insecls ? — The term is applied to all, or nearly 

 all, tlie family of bugs, worms, flies, -wa-sps, mollis, 

 millers, and small creeping things that infest a farm, 

 and all are generally ranked as pests, though erro- 

 neously, as we will show by-and-by, some of them 

 being highly beneficial. 



The word insect comes from two Latin words, 

 signifj'ing cut into, or notched ; and the body of a 

 perfect insect, as a wasp, is cut into and divided into 

 three distinct segments — tlie head, thorax, and abdo- 

 men, with two or three pairs of legs, and one or two 

 pairs of wings, and it breathes through holes in the 

 sides of the body. Insects commence life in eggs, 

 which hatch into worms or larva?, such as maggots 

 or caterpillars, and these, after doing immense mis- 

 chief, as in that state they are voracious gormandizers, undergo transforma- 

 tion to the pupa or chrysalis state, and from that to the bug or butterfly 

 form, during which the eggs are laid in such vast numbers, that the species 

 are propagated so rapidly that the art of man seems insufficient to stay their 

 ravages, if of a ravaging breed, and hence he must look to natural aids. It 

 is for this that we have advocated protection to birds, because they are great 

 insect destroyers. Pestiferous insects also have several other natural ene- 

 mies, which must be studied and protected by farmers. 



Besides what arc considered and treated of in natural history as perfect 

 insects, there arc a great many sorts that come under the general name of 

 insect that do not answer the above deflnition, such as some of the aphis, or 

 plant-lice family, the striped and other bugs, and various worms. Some of 

 the latter — for instance, the earth-worm, or angler's worm — arc thought to 

 be beneficial to soil. We think, rather, it could bo made more benetieial iu 

 its death than in its life. Anything, such as salt, lime, potash, ammonia, 

 that would kill all the earth-worms, would add all the animal matter of their 

 bod}' to the soil's fertility. 



We can not go into a general examination of entomology, though we do 

 earnestly advise a study of the science by all farmers, who arc, above all 

 other classes of the community, most in want of knowledge of insects, and 

 liiiw to distinguish between those that are pests and those that are harmless, 

 or, perhaps, actual destroyers of those that arc devastating our orchanls, gar- 

 dens, and graiu-tields. Of a few of these Ave shall give correct ]>icturc8, 

 with brief liints about their character, depredations, and such preventives as 

 have been tried ami j)roved valuable f>r useless. 



The great dillieulty with the numagement of the greatest pests is their 



