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information with which, at any rate it is hoped, they can fight most of the insect* pests 

 from which we occasionally suffer, and also at the same time learn to discriminate which 

 among the countless hordes of the insect world may be ranked as allies. 



The naturalist founds his studies upon the theory that nothing in nature is useless, 

 and everything that is, must have some special function to perform or it would not exist; 

 it is in tracing up these special adaptations to certain ends that he finds the charm which 

 enables him to carry on the laborious investigations which are oftentimes necessary. 



As every one knows, vegetable and animal life are the two re-agents which Nature 

 employs to keep up the balance of creation, the one feeding upon or deriving its nutri- 

 ment from the other. Now, these two agents are to a certain extent acted upon and kept 

 in check by their own component parts. Whenever, owing to particularly favourable 

 circumstances, too many seeds of any one species of plant spring up in the same place, 

 they do not all mature, for if they did, all would be sickly from want of light and air, 

 and the species would gradually degenerate. Consequently, it is provided that the weaker 

 should be kept down and choked to death to make room for their more robust com- 

 panions. This is similarly the case in the animal world, as for instance with insects. 

 When, from special circumstances, any one species is abnormally multiplied, it is sure to be 

 attacked and kept in check by some other kind, which itself may be a prey to another 

 species. Plants through all their stages from the seed to the decaying leaf, are the ori- 

 ginal source of support to some form of animal life ; wherever vegetable life is profuse, 

 there insects abound. The green plant attracts innumerable small insects ; these in their 

 turn attract larger carnivorous species, which are again preyed upon by birds and 

 reptiles, and the larger carnivorous animals follow. The flesh feeders, thus depending one 

 upon the other for subsistence, have a primary dependence upon vegetable life ; therefore, 

 wherever there is the greatest variety of vegetable life there will necessarily be the 

 greatest variety of animals, whether quadrupeds, birds, reptiles "or insects. 



It is estimated that insects comprise no less than four-fifths of the whole animal 

 kingdom. While there are about 55,000 known species of animals, excluding insects, the 

 number of these amounts to upwards of 200,000. It is therefore perfectly manifest that 

 they must perform some very important mission in the economy of nature. " It would 

 be easy," writes the Rev. J. G. Wood in " Insects Abroad," " to show how the very crea- 

 tures which are most detested by man, and do him the most direct damage, are indeed, 

 though indirectly, among his best benefactors. Apart from direct benefit or injury to 

 man, the whole of the insect tribes are working towards one purpose, namely, the gradual 

 development of the earth and its resources. The greater number are perpetually de- 

 stroying that which is effete, in order to make way for something better ; while others, 

 whose business seems chiefly to be the killing and eating of their fellow-insects, act as a 

 check to their inordinate increase, and so guard against the danger of their exceeding 

 their proper mission." 



I will borrow from the same author two more similes demonstrative of the fact that 

 even amongst those insects which we consider most noxious we have some good friends. 

 What more annoying creature can the mind conceive than the common mosquito 1 Truly 

 is Beelzebub ("King of the Flies") rightly named if these are types of his subjects. 

 It must be remembered, however, that devouring human beings is not the normal occupation 

 of mosquitoes ; but the former are intruders into their domains, and consequently must 

 bear the consequences. Their real object is a beneficent one. In the deep dark forests 

 of the tropics the air would be perfectly stagnant, and an enormous development of 

 noisome fevers would be the consequence, if it were not for the motion caused by the 

 wings of these minute creatures which breed there in myriads, and that of various birds 

 and predacious insects which they attract there to feed upon them. In the larval state, 

 too, they live in water, and feed upon the particles of decayed matter which are too small 

 to be noticed by the larger aquatic animals. W T ere it not for the presence of these in- 

 sects, which swarm in vast armies in all stagnant water in warm climates, thus purifying 

 it as well as the atmosphere, such localities would be uninhabitable by any animals higher 

 than reptiles. Again, strange as it may appear at first sight, if it were not for the 

 existence of the many borers and wood-eating insects we could have none of those 



