238 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



respiration, which would raise the pitch of 

 the insect's life. 



WHY ARE THERE SO MANY INSECTS? 



Many naturalists estimate the number of 

 different kinds of living backboned animals 

 named and known at about 25,000. But of 

 named and known backboneless animals there 

 are ten times as many, and the most of these 

 are insects! But some authorities on insects 

 insist that this computation is far too mod- 

 erate. They point out that, on the average, 

 6000 new insects are discovered every year, 

 and insist that the total number of different 

 kinds now living on the earth must be put at 

 over 2,000,000. As one of the experts says: 

 " One fact remains certain namely, that the 

 number of species of insects is at least six 

 times that of all the other animals put to- 

 gether." And besides the prodigious number 

 of different kinds of insects, there is the 

 colossal number of individuals that often rep- 

 resent a particular species at one time. Why 

 are there so many insects? 



The first part of the answer is that most 

 insects have the power of true flight, which 



