VALUE OF INSECTS. 5 



simple act of building their wonderful nests. They are per- 

 petually engaged in transferring to the surface of the earth the 

 soil which they have taken from beneath it, and so continually 

 renewing and fertilizing it with fresh soil. These insects indeed 

 play very much the part that our much-despised mole and worm 

 do at home. It would be easy to multiply examples indefinitely, 

 but I have chosen these insects in order to show how even the 

 very creatures which are most detested by man, and do him the 

 most direct damage, are indeed, though indirectly, among his 

 best benefactors. Apart from direct benefit or injury to man, 

 the whole of the insect tribes are working towards one purpose, 

 namely, the gradual development of the earth and its resources. 

 The greater number are perpetually destroying that which is 

 effete, in order to make way for something better ; while others, 

 whose business seems chiefly to be the killing and eating of 

 their fellow-insects, act as a check to their inordinate increase, 

 and so guard against the danger of their exceeding their proper 

 mission. 



