CHAPTER 



9 The Wonderful Ways 

 of Insects and Spiders 



o MOST PEOPLE a fly is something to be 

 swatted; mosquitoes often take the joy out 

 of country life; and ants call to mind all the troublesome aspects 

 of a picnic! Altogether there is plenty of reason for children and 

 parents as well to feel that insects are above all else a terrific 

 nuisance. 



There is another way of looking at them, though. The lives 

 of some species are as fanciful as fairy stories, and those "curiosi- 

 ties" of nature which so delight all of us are found in striking 

 abundance among the insects. 



Some of them are skillful engineers and manufacturers. Bees 

 and ants live in societies complex enough to rival those of man- 

 kind. One insect, the doodlebug, always walks backward! The 

 queen of a tropical species of termites may produce ten million 

 offspring in her lifetime. There are wasps that keep their food 

 fresh over a period of time just as successfully as we keep ours 

 in a refrigerator by injecting a fluid which paralyzes the nerves 

 of their victims without producing death. Then the wasps store 

 the bodies until they are needed as food. 



Many of our common, everyday insects become objects of 

 wonder if we examine their way of life; and, as they live in city, 

 town, and country, we can enjoy hours of fascinating observation 

 without troubling to go far afield. 



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