INSECTS AND BIRDS. 



267 



SECTION XLL INSECT FRIENDS OF THE FARMER. 



Fortunately, not all insects are pests of the farm. 

 Many of these small animals are among our best 

 friends. The honey-bee is of great and direct use to 

 us, because it furnishes us with honey, a delicious and 

 important article of food. The bodies of certain scale 

 insects are dried and then pulverized to form the color- 

 ing matter, cochineal. Certain other scale insects se- 

 crete a kind of wax from which shellac is made, and 

 which is used so much in finishing furniture. We 

 should not forget, either, that bees are especially useful 

 in cross-fertilizing many of our fruits and certain of 

 our forage plants, notably red clover. Perhaps the 

 most notable example of the value of insects in the 

 cross-fertilization of fruits is shown in connection with 

 the fig in California. A tiny fly brought over from 

 Europe now cross-fertilizes the wild and cultivated figs 

 in California. As a result, the cultivated figs have be- 

 come so much better in quality that they are pronounced 

 by experts as good as the fig we get from Europe, if 

 not better. 



Insect Cannibals. There is a group of small hand- 

 some, roundish beetles with red bodies specked with 



TWO-SPOTTED LADY-BIRD. 



a, larva; d, pupa; e, adult. (From Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture.) 



