196 OTHER MICMBER.S OF THE CLASS — INSECTA 



insects do to agricultural and horticultural interests is apt 

 to overshadow the benehts these small animals confer upon 

 mankind. A\'e should not forget that bees are specially 

 useful in cross-fertilizing many of our fnuts and certain of 

 our forage jJants, notaldy red clover. The usefulness of 

 tlie buniljlelx'C, in this res|ject, was (Remonstrated wlien it 

 was found tliat red clover in Australia did not jwoduce seed 

 imtil this bee had Ijcen imported to cross-fertilize the 

 flowers of the clo\er jilant. 



A most notable demonstration of the value of insects in 

 the cross fertilization of fruits has been made by the Bureau 

 of Entomology of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture in connection with fig growing in California. To 

 produce the fjest (juality of fruit the flowers of the culti- 

 vated flg must Ije cross-fertilized witli tlie i^ollen from the 

 wild fig. The structure of the fig flower is such that this 

 can be done only by a tiny insect, the lilastoi^haga, formerly 

 not found in the United States. After man}' trials and 

 most praisewortliy iicrsistence the Bureau of Entomology 

 succeeded in importing this insect from the fig-growing dis- 

 tricts of iMU'ope and in establishing it in Califoi-nia. with (he 

 result that that state is now producing, annually, many 

 tons of figs ]ironounced Ijy ex]jerts to be suiterior, in some 

 i'es])e(ts, 1o the im|jorted Smyrna figs. 



Scale ins('(ts gi^-c us cochineal and carmine and some of 

 them pi'odiiiM' the shellac used in finishing furniture, etc. 

 The produ(ts of the honeybee amount to hundreds of 

 thousands of dollai's each year. 



y\ftei' all, it is in tin' role of destroyers of fruits, garden 

 cro|is, foivst Irci's, and cereals tliat insects assume theii' 

 greatest ecDiKiniic iinportanc(\ I(. is eslimati'(l that the 

 chinch bug destro\'s fort\' million (jollars' noitli of wheat 



