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You know, we ordinarily think of insects staying pretty close to earth. 

 And, of course, the big paxt of them do« But it was surprising even to those 

 insect experts to find how many insects get high into the air, and how high 

 they do get. 



With those traps in the airplane, they iTiade collections all the way 

 from 50 feet above ground up to 14,000. And they found insects at all levels. 

 Naturally, the densest insect population is in the first 1,000 feet. But at 

 2,000 feet they found about half as man;;' as at 1,000. And at 3,000 feet, they 

 found half as manjf as at 2,000 feet. From about 3,000 feet up to 5,000 there 

 was not much diifcrcnco. And from 6,000 on up the number got considerably 

 lighter, 3ut there was a remarkable number found even at that height. 



Some of these scientists figured out how many insects there v/ould be in 

 a column of air 1 mile square and 14,000 feet high, not counting those any 

 lower than 50 foot above ground. And \indcrstand, the collections, on which 

 the calculations v/ero based, were made at all seasons of the year. The f limits 

 wore at Tallulah, Louisiana, and it \7as calculated that there was an average 

 of 25,000,000 insects over one square mile. Twenty-five million insects up 

 where we ordinarily think of there being fev/ to none i In January, the number 

 was about 12,000,000 and in May about 36,000,000. 



Of course, that brings up the question, "What insects?" And the ento- 

 mologists found some striking things when they sorted the catches out accord- 

 ing to kind. Tliey found, for instance, that the bigger, stronger flying in- 

 sects arc collected closer to the earth and that the smaller, lyeaker insects 

 arc the ones chiefly found at the higlier altitudes. In fact, they found many 

 absolutelj'- v/inglcss insects viay up in the air. 



For instance, as high as 10,000 feet up, they fo\ind balloon spiders, 

 which hav3 no powers of flight but are carried by air currents entirely. 

 Mites wera also found way up there. 



So you see, insects have two methods of air travel just as we have. 

 We have free balloons which drift with the wind, and then we have aeroplanes 

 which move under their own po'.rer, either -.vith or against the wind. 



Among insects, there are the heavy, strong flyers, and there are those 

 weak, light bodied insects which arC picked up by rising air currents and 

 carried helplosoly in the wind, Ihcjn there are the bettriit-and-betwcen in- 

 sects which can do some flying on their ovm account, and are carried partly 

 by the wind and partly by their own efforts. 



The entomolo/jist s fo\and, for instance, that generally speaking, sucli 

 strong flyers as the cotton leaf worm moth and similar species fly at levels 

 below 3,000 feet. Occasionally, however, they did collect individ\ial cotton 

 loaf '.Torm moths as high as 5,000 feet. No boll v/eevils were found any higlier 

 than 1,000 feet. Tarnished plant bugs were found up to 3,000 feet, and cotton 

 flea hoppers up to 5,000 foot. 



On the other hand, such insects as leaf hoppers were found up to 

 7,000 feet above ground. From there on up to 14,000 feet the airplane traps 



