288 SOME NOXIOUS INSECTS. 



furnishes us with honey and wax, and so we praise it for 

 its industry, though we have no word of commendation 

 for the common wasp, which is quite as industrious and 

 unselfish as the bee, or the sand wasp, which works 

 infinitely harder. 



The silkworms are almost venerated, because we use 

 the silk which they produce. Yet there is not a cater- 

 pillar, either of butterfly or moth, that does not produce 

 silk of some kind. 



The cochineal insect is almost as important to man as 

 the silkworm, and, tiny as it is, it furnishes the means of 

 existence to thousands of human beings. Two of its 

 near relatives are also of exceeding value, one furnishing 

 a wax equal in many respects to that of the bee, and the 

 other producing the " lac " so invaluable for lacquer work, 

 sealing-wax, and varnish. 



Yet, were it not that we have learned the value of 

 their counterbalancing qualities, every one of these crea- 

 tures would be justifiably ranked among the noxious 

 insects. 



Take the bee. A child, who is ignorant of the charac- 

 ter of the bee, seizes it, is stung, and has very good 

 reason for considering it as a very noxious insect. 



Afterwards, when he learns that the bee furnishes the 

 sweet honey which tickles his palate, he pardons the 

 sting which has hurt his hand. He has learned one of 

 the counterbalancing qualities of a noxious insect. As 

 he increases in knowledge and civilisation, he learns that 

 the wax, which as a child he would have flung aside 



