Page:Insects - Their Ways and Means of Living.djvu/52

 flagrant neglect on the part of nature for her creatures, where it would seem a remedy for their ills would be easy to supply.

In human society of modern times the criminal element has come to look no different from the law-abiding class of citizens. Formerly, if we may judge from pictures and stage representations, thieves and thugs were tough-looking individuals that could not be mistaken on sight, but today our bandits are spruce young fellows that pass without suspicion in the crowd. And thus it is with the insects, all unsuspectingly one may be rubbing elbows with another that overnight will despoil his home, or that has already committed some act of violence against his neighbor. Here, for example, in the same field with the grasshoppers, is an innocent-looking beetle, about three-quarters of an inch in length, black and striped with yellow (Fig. 11 B). His entomological name is Epicauta vittata, which, of course, means nothing to a locust. He is now a vegetarian, but in his younger days he ravished the nest of a grasshopper and devoured the eggs, and his progeny will do the same again. Epicauta and others of his family