Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 76.djvu/228

224 I trust that I have succeeded in convincing my audience of the important part that insects play in the community, and how vitally they affect man in his life, his health and his pocket. I might add to emphasize this still more, that were all natural checks removed from plant-feeding insects for two successive years, not a green thing would be left on the face of the earth; and that with the same checks removed from the forms parasitic and predatory on the higher animals, the third year would probably see the end of all vertebrate terrestrial life.

The questions will naturally arise—is there no brighter side to this subject? Are not insects of some use, and do we not derive some benefit or advantage from them?

Both of these questions are answerable in the affirmative, for insects are distinctly and importantly useful to man both directly and indirectly, altogether aside from the fact that parasitic and predatory species materially reduce the amount of injury that would otherwise be caused by those already mentioned.

Leaders among the directly beneficial species are the honey-bees and silk worms. Bee products, wax and honey, amount to millions of dollars

annually, and there is no more attractive food than good honey—a matter that is much more appreciated in continental Europe, where honey is a usual part of breakfast, than in the United States, where it is rarely seen on our tables at any meal. Bees-wax is, of course, an important commercial product, although its place for many purposes has been usurped by the cheaper paraffin.

As for silks, I would not dare to estimate the amount of money invested in them annually. The silk worm makes up in value for much of the injury caused by other caterpillars, and it would be well sometimes for our grand ladies in rustling garments to realize that they owe a large percentage of their exterior magnificence to a nasty, inconspicuous caterpillar.