PART III 

 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO DRUGS 



The introduction of this brief appended section on insects injurious 

 to drugs into a text-book of materia medica, while an innovation, seems 

 desirable to the author of the text-book on the ground of the importance 

 of the subject. It is a fact that stored drugs are attacked by a consider- 

 able number of insects, and that a varying amount of loss from this cause 

 is sustained by practically every druggist, wholesale and retail, in the land. 

 If, by the acquiring of a little knowledge of the appearance and habits 

 of these pests, and by the exertion required in a little preventive or reme- 

 dial care, this loss can be lessened, the introduction of this section, which 

 attempts to furnish the information necessary for the little knowledge 

 and the little care, will be justified. 



The necessary entomological knowledge of the pharmacist who would 

 make some show of resistance to the insect enemies of his drugs may be 

 limited to an acquaintanceship with these insect enemies, and a knowl- 

 edge of the means of fighting them. As a basis for this acquaintanceship, 

 however, it is necessary to glance hastily at the great class of insects in 

 general. More numerous in species and individuals than all other animals 

 combined, the insects are conveniently divided into several great groups 

 or orders. All the butterflies and moths, whose wings are covered with 

 fine scales, and who obtain their food by sucking the nectar from flowers, 

 constitute one order; the beetles, with their horny fore- wings and their 

 powerful jaws for biting, compose another order; the two- winged flies, of 

 which the familiar house-fly is an example, constitute a third order; the 

 ants, bees, and wasps, and some other highly intelligent insects are grouped 

 together in a fourth order; the true bugs, as the chinchbug and squash- 

 bug, with their sucking beaks, are comprised in a fifth order; the grass- 

 hoppers, crickets, cockroaches, and katydids compose a sixth order; and, 

 finally, the gauzy-winged dragon-flies, the short-lived May-flies, and the 

 wonderful white ants constitute a seventh order. But a simpler division 

 of insects into two great groups is that often made, for convenience' sake, 

 especially by the economic entomologist; namely, a division made accord- 

 ing to mouth parts, all insects in the adult stage having mouth parts fitted 

 for biting or mouth parts fitted for sucking. It is evident at once that 

 the pharmacist will be especially interested in the biting insects, the ones 

 which can attack roots and leaves, and all dry preparations. There will 



487 



