USEFUL INSECTS 201 



At the present time in Europe, Asia, and America there 

 are probably not far from ten million people who depend in 

 large measure upon the product of the silkworm for their 

 livelihood. Although the product of their industry and that 

 of the insects combined is not nearly as indispensable to 

 man as those which are won from the hair of animals or the 

 fibres of plants — for silk is a luxury rather than a necessity 

 — the value of the work done by these humble creatures is 

 o-reater than that effected by the largest of our domesticated 

 animals, the elephant. If the philanthropic economist were 

 forced to choose which of these creatures should pass from 

 the earth, he would have to accept the loss of the greater 

 and far nobler animal. 



So far as regards their intelligence, the silkworms are 

 much below the level of the bees. Though they dwell in an 

 aggregate way they have scarcely a semblance of social order, 

 and are without the wide range of peculiar instincts which 

 we invariably find among the commonwealth animals. The 

 order of Lcpidoptcra, in which these creatures belong, though 

 the most beautiful, appears to be from an intellectual point 

 of view the least advanced of our insects. Their instincts 

 are all on a low plane ; they have no kind of mutual labor, 

 and however much advance we may make by selection in 

 developing their bodies, there is no reason to expect that 

 we shall affect their intelligences. 



The cochineal insect, a .species which has the habit of 

 feeding upon the cactus, is used for a dye stuff, for which 

 service the brightly colored body is appropriated. Although 

 the creature is deliberately planted where it is to feed, and 

 thus is in a way submitted to culture, it cannot fairly be said 

 to have been entered in the domesticated circle of man. In 



