ORIGIN OF ADAPTATIONS AND OF SPECIES 239 



increase is unchecked, the number of individuals of the twelfth 

 generation, as the descendants pf a single female of the first 

 generation, would be ten sextillions. These if placed in a 

 single file, allowing 10 aphids to an inch, would form a line so 

 long that light itself, traveling at the rate of 186,000 miles 

 per second, would require over 2,690 years to go from one 

 end of the line to the other. 



As it is, many species become temporarily dominant under 

 favorable conditions ; for example, the Rocky Mountain locust, 

 chinch bug and gypsy moth. Even one of the least prolific 

 species would predominate in a surprisingly short time, were 

 it permitted to increase in its normal geometrical ratio. The 

 rate of sexual reproduction is highest in fishes and insects. An 

 insect averages one or two hundred eggs, w-hile some forms, 

 as queen termites, lay them by thousands. 



Struggle for Existence. Although a single species is 

 potentially capable of covering the earth, there actually are at 

 least 1,000,000 species of insects, not to mention 250,000 spe- 

 cies of other animals and some 500,000 kinds of plants. This 

 means a tremendous prevention of reproduction among the 

 individuals of any one species an intense " struggle for ex- 

 istence," as Darwin termed it. Among plants and the lower 

 animals, comparatively few individuals survive and reproduce ; 

 the majority die. The agents of destruction are manifold, 

 each species having its own army of enemies, organic and in- 

 organic. Thus insects are subject to unfavorable conditions 

 of temperature and moisture, to bacterial and fungous dis- 

 eases, vertebrate and invertebrate enemies, accidents, etc. 

 The aphids are at the same time among the most prolific and 

 the most defenceless of animals. These delicate insects suc- 

 cumb to very slight mechanical shocks and are killed by ex- 

 tremes of temperature that most other insects can endure. 

 They are often washed off their food plants by rain. Their 

 rate of reproduction decreases if their food plant receives in- 

 sufficient moisture. Aphids form the chief food of coccinellid 

 larvae and beetles, are preyed upon by chrysopid and syrphid 



