THE SMALLHOLDER AND INSECT PESTS 17 



^a\v-flies, etc. Amongst these, if we rule out the wasps 

 and saw-flies, we have the aristocrats of the insect world, 

 and leaving out of account the crowning example of the 

 honey-bee, they are most useful to man as fertilizers of 

 flowers and persecutors of harmful tribes in the other 

 orders. The Hymenoptera are usually provided either 

 with a sting or a powerful set of jaws, which they use 

 in self-defence. (See Plate 3.) 



The eighth class are the Lepidopteka, or Scaly- 

 Wings, divided into butterflies and moths, the main 

 difference between them being seen in the antennae or 

 feelers, which in butterflies are knobbed at the ends, 

 whilst those of moths are nearly always tapered off in a 

 fine point. ^ 



In their larval state certain species of these insects 

 are a serious menace to crops, notably the Cabbage 

 Whites and the Cabbage Moth, which have been exhaus- 

 tively studied, and of which more later. Most of our 

 beautiful British butterflies, however, such as the lovely 

 Fritillaries, Red Admirals, Peacocks and Blues, are harm- 

 less, and should remain as an ornament to the country- 

 side, as in their caterpillar form they merely eat up 

 nettles, thistles and low-growing herbage, and also, as 

 perfect insects, give a lot of help in the fertilization of 

 flowers. (See Plate 12.) 



The CoLEOPTERA, or Case- Wings, include all the true 

 beetles, aquatic or otherwise, and are easily the most 

 numerous and most diverse kind of insects in variety of 

 habits, uses and abuses. A proper study of British 

 Beetles would more than occupy a lifetime, but here we 

 shall be confined to the pests themselves, their parasites 

 and larger species which devour them. The larvae of 

 beetles are lound everywhere — in the water, in the soil, 

 in the stems of plants, in the heart of flowers, in dusty 

 corners of rooms, hidden away in damp cellars, and 

 buried in the midst of manure heaps, or revelling at the 

 roots of meadow-grass and amongst all kinds of rotted 



