GARDEN PESTS IN NEW ZEALAND 



CHAPTER I 



General Review of the Animal Kingdom. 



AT the outset it is advisable, by reviewing the animal kingdom as a 

 whole, to secure in perspective the relationships of the animals 

 with which the horticulturist has to deal. 



To most people the animal kingdom is comprised chiefly of those 

 animals commonly met with in everyday life or in general reading 

 the game and domestic animals aiid the fishes, all of which are similar 

 in that they possess a backbone or vertebral column, and are consequently 

 known as the vertebrates. Popularly, however, they are generally classed 

 as the "lower" and "higher" animals; there is certainly some accuracy 

 in such a haphazard classification, since, though all the vertebrates are, 

 strictly speaking, the "higher" animals, some are "lower" (e.g., fish, 

 frog, and bird) than others (e.g., kangaroo, dog, and man, the highest 

 of all). 



But when it comes to the true "lower" animals, that vast assemblage 

 of less conspicuous creatures, the jelly-fish and corals, worms of all kinds, 

 sea-urchins, crayfish, wood-lice, spiders and insects, shell-fish and snails, 

 all characterised by the absence of a vertebral column and known as the 

 invertebrates, they are not collectively visualised in a general sense as 

 are the vertebrates. As a rule, these invertebrates are known individually 

 as independent units, except, perhaps, in the case of worms, insects, 

 spiders, wood-lice, etc., which are very often collectively and haphazardly 

 referred to as "insects," a term, in this sense, as ill-defined as it is 

 unlimited. 



That the average person should be more conversant with the verte- 

 brates than the ' invertebrates is, to a great extent, the natural outcome 

 of association and training; a possible influence is to be found at the 

 outset of one's career in the many illustrated nursery books depicting 

 game and domestic animals, but seldom, if ever, any of the invertebrates ; 

 and this impression tends to be further fostered in later life by visits 

 to the zoo, where we meet in person most of the nursery book animals, 

 and perhaps some of the lower forms, such as insects; but the latter, in 

 most cases, are there by chance, not design, and against the will of the 

 authorities. 



In recent years., however, more public attention has been given to 

 the lower animals owing to the detrimental influence of many upon 

 agricultural development as well as upon public health. That such 

 animals are capable of ranking as fundamental factors hindering human 

 progress, may be realised when it is considered that, of the invertebrates, 

 insects alone comprise nearly four-fifths of the whole animal kindom ! 

 This has been graphically illustrated as follows by F. E. Lutz, of the 

 American Museum of Natural History: Extend the arms and fingers 

 at right angles to the body, and let the distance from the tip of the 



