31. ANIMALS THAT DESTROY INSECTS. 



Natural Destroyers. We might greatly reduce the 

 number of insects and worms that destroy our crops, by 

 taking care not to destroy the animals that feed upon 

 them. We have been so 

 careless in destroying in- 

 sects, toads, and birds that 

 live upon the insects 

 which do us harm, that 

 these insects have greatly 

 increased in number and 

 have become pests. If all 

 would study to preserve 

 the friends and to destroy 

 the enemies of our crops, 

 we should be rid of the de- 

 structive insects in a short 



FIG. 99. Ichneumon fly. 



time. 



Insects. 1 The Ichneu- 

 mon Fly is one of the most beautiful, as well as val- 

 uable, of insects. As will be noticed from the picture, 

 it is boring into the trunk of a tree. It is doing no 



1 There is a popular notion that all small animals, such as flies, spiders, and 

 the cpral animals in the sea, are insects. This is a mistake, as neither the 

 spiders "nor the coral polyps belong to the insect class. The word insect is 

 applied properly to those animals which have bodies divided into three distinct 

 sections: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. From the head there springs 

 a pair of feelers called antennx, and from the thorax six legs grow. The 

 wasp is a good illustration of an insect. The spider has but two distinct parts, 

 and comes under another class. 



175 



