20 INSECT BEHAVIOR 



fying sound, dwarfing all others, would reach them, a grinding of 

 life between myriad jaws, merciless, endless, for such is life in this 

 new world. 



Such an existence in such a forest is beyond our comprehension. It 

 is the exception to survive long here. Each species preys upon, or 

 fights to exterminate the next. There are serpents of great length 

 and colossal rodents that comparatively dwarf a mastodon, which 

 add to the excitement of life. It is fortunate that the creatures 

 peopling such a world possess little if any intelligence. Indeed it is 

 possible that they were purposely deprived of it lest they fear to 

 venture forth. 



Now this jungle may flourish into a great wilderness, a forest 

 whose real floor the sun never reaches. Here among the buts of the 

 trees, weird creatures are encountered. Ugly crab-like things that 

 suck the blood of others, minute horny creatures and indescribable 

 crawling ones whose life story and functions nobody yet knows. 



Above the dead fallen stems that cover this tomb life, a second 

 group of living things is encountered. Larger creatures capable of 

 utterances of a harsh nature, hard shelled beasts and triangular- 

 bodied ones that emit disgusting odors. 



One night the jungle flourishes, green and rich with swaying, surg- 

 ing life and energy, but the next night it has vanished. Every tree 

 has fallen by some mysterious hand; millions of creatures perish 

 and all is confusion. What has occurred claims a greater toll than 

 war, yet, as we shall see, it is by no means a miracle. 



Beyond the vanishing jungle lies a country of another type, the 

 like of which no human being has ever seen. 



Imagine a series of parallel mountain ranges, three hundred in 

 number, of great length, with as many narrow valleys lying between. 

 The country is nearly barren yet strangely rich in soil. At great 

 distances some green thing finds courage to lift its head, standing 



