INSECTS AND MAN. 
39 
domestic animals include lice, ticks, fleas, horse-flies, bots, warbles and 
other parasites of cattle, horses, sheep, dogs, etc. Under the head of 
indirect injury is the transmission of disease, of which flies and pro¬ 
bably lice, fleas and horse-flies may be especially important. 
Of those personally distasteful, it is hard to speak. The mosquito 
that bites and sings, the cockroach that flies around before rain, the eye- 
fly that thinks its proper sphere is man’s visual organ, the crawling cater¬ 
pillar that falls from, on high, each (and many more) is distasteful in 
some degree to different individuals. The dweller in Bengal is harried 
by hordes of perfectly amiable and delightful insects which join him 
when the lamps are lit. As I write, they swarm around me, in great 
variety, in pleasing profusion, adding, by their mere number and senseless 
gyrations, to the irritation caused by climate, weariness, liver, etc. In 
some places “ gundies ” ( Cydnince ) are pre-eminent, in other places 
green fly (Jassids) ; the geranium (Cydnus) is familiar to some, while 
our curse here is varied but largely composed of beetles (Scaritids chiefly). 
Whatever they are, their profusion, their ubiquitousness, their buzzings 
and their singed or oily corpses cause an annoyance only to be appreciated 
by experience, and which forms not the least of the ills we bear. 
Elsewhere the reader will find an account of the insects transmitting 
human disease, the go-betweens, which add so enormously to the death- 
roll, which cripple so many lives and which constitute the first and 
greatest menace to human life in tropical countries. 
So far all is ill and were we to consider this only, then insects would 
have but a sinister significance. There is another side and still taking 
our anthropocentric view, we may consider the classes of insects on which 
man’s welfare depends. A very large class of insects promote tillage, 
by burrowing and excavating in the soil; they sweeten the soil and ren¬ 
der the growth of plants possible. This is especially the case in tropical 
India, where worms are not so abundant; it is impossible to bring accurate 
proof of this, but it is easy to observe the countless borings of insects 
in undisturbed soil, especially under trees and where there has been no 
cultivation. In addition to this, insects do much directly to enrich 
the soil by carrying down dung, by burying carcasses, by causing the de¬ 
cay of fallen vegetable matter. It requires but little observation and 
thought to see how large a part insects play in this, and how greatly they 
