INTRODUCTION. 



uf all the many forms of life which exist upon the surface of 

 this old earth of ours, and which are our daily companions for good 

 or ill during our few years' stay thereon, none are more numerous 

 or less known than insects. Not only are they Abundant as indi- 

 viduals, but the number of species is many fold greater than that 

 of all other animals taken together. Both on land and in water they 

 occur by millions, yet the life history of even the house-fly is known 

 to but few. Many are the worst enemies with which the farmer 

 has to contend, while others are to him worth far more than their 

 weight in gold, yet to most farmers the beneficial and the injurious 

 are as one, because he has no way of telling them apart. Not only 

 from his wheat and corn, his grass and trees, his fruit and vege- 

 tables do the injurious ones take toll, but on his carpets, his clothes 

 and even his blood they prey. More than six hundred millions of 

 dollars is the average loss they entail to agriculture in the United 

 States alone each year, yet not one farmer in thirty knows the 

 names of a score of different kinds. 



The reason of this ignorance is not hard to understand. The 

 first thing which a boy, a girl, or even a man or woman asks about 

 something is, "What is it?" "What is its name?" If nobody 

 can tell them its name or even its position among and relation to 

 .the other things about them, they soon forget and ignore it for all 

 time to come, unless by its preying i;pon them or on their property 

 it causes such harm or loss as to cause them to give it a name of their 

 own. Some of their neighbors may also suffer loss or injury by the 

 same form of life and they may give it a wholly different name. 

 This may continue until the same thing, insect or whatsoever it be, 

 may have half a dozen or more common names. In time, however, 

 a scientist, or one with more knowledge of that particular group of 

 living things, comes along and recognizes that wliat is known by one 

 name in one place is the same thing called by another name some- 

 where else. He assigns a technical name, provided one has not al- 

 ready been given it by some other scientist, and shows its place 

 among and relation to all of its kind. If he can do this in such a 

 way that the boy or girl, or the farmer can understand, they will, 

 in future, be able to use the right name when talking or writing 

 aljout that particular object of nature. 



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