DOMINANCE. 



11 



of water teem with insect life. Their habits are of great interest, and the 

 devices with which they supply themselves with air are amazing in their 

 diversity and ingenuity. Unquestionably the aquatic insects are descended 

 from air-breathing land insects, and for every species the problem of 

 extracting air from the water or of drawing a supply from the surface 

 has been solved in a more or less ingenious manner. These insects, how- 

 ever, form a division apart, cut off by their diverse habits from the insects 

 living on dry land. 



The vast majority of insects live on the land, establishing them- 

 selves in every possible situation, with the most diverse occupations and 

 methods of obtaining a living. At this period of the earth's history 

 they are the dominant group, the most successful and prosperous, taking 

 toll of all other creatures. In number of species, in actual numbers or 

 bulk, in the sum total of their activities, they outweigh all other forms of 

 animal life at present on the earth. The extraordinary diversity of their 

 habits and food, their rapid multiplication, their small size, their varied 

 powers of locomotion, of offence and defence, and the marvellous instincts 

 and senses with which they are endowed, all these serve to put them 

 above other forms of animal life. Man prides himself on conquering 

 nature, on being the highest expression of animal life, the crown of crea- 

 tion : a dispassionate examina- 

 tion of insect life reveals 

 that even man's powers are 

 as nothing to those of insect 

 life, his senses weaker, his 

 sociology and conduct of life 

 far inferior to that of the social 

 insect, and he himself com- 

 paratively lacking in the 

 exhibition of altruism and right 

 conduct shown by an insect. 



Insects are small and their 

 domination is not apparent; 

 but they have established 

 themselves in every nook and 

 corner of the earth, deriving 

 their food from a vast number 

 of sources. Many feed on 

 plants, living in every part of 

 the growing plant, from the fruit to the roots ; eating the flowers, boring in 

 the stein, mining in the leaves ; they devour the leaves, destroy the bark and 



FIG. 17. 



Stages of Fly whose maggot lives in the leaf of 



the tea-plant. 

 (From drawing by E. E. Green.} 



