The Insect Folk
AUTHOR OF SEED-BABIES, FLOWERS AND THEIR FRIENDS LITTLE WANDERERS, ETC.
BOSTON, U.S.A. GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 1903
Copyright, 1903, by MARGARET WARNER MORLEY All rights reserved
Dear Children,—The very best way to know the insects is to go and watch them. Watch them whenever you can, and each time you will find out something new. Books will help you, but you must watch, too. Look more than you read.
If you need to catch them, put them under a tumbler, and feed them and give them a drop of water every day to drink. Slip a card under the rim of the tumbler on one side so as to let in the air. If you do not know what to feed them, or if they will not eat, let them go after a day or two.
If you wish to kill an injurious insect, do it quickly and completely . Remember the insects are alive, and we should not make them suffer unnecessarily.
Of course you must try to make your captives feel at home. If they live in the sand, put sand in the tumbler and tie a piece of netting over the top so they cannot escape.
If they live in the water, put them in a tumbler of water. And when you have secured your captives, watch them as much as you can.
If you do not know how to pronounce the words in this book, study the glossary at the back and it will help you.
I hope you will have a very happy time getting acquainted with your little insect neighbors.
MARGARET WARNER MORLEY. Boston, April 18, 1903.
Margaret Warner Morley
The Insect Folk
MARGARET WARNER MORLEY
A WORD TO THE CHILDREN
CONTENTS
Our Pretty Dragon Flies
The Fairy May Flies
The Stone Fly Folk
The Silver Fish
Orthoptera
The Old Cockroaches
Neighbor Walking Stick
The Grasshopper Tribes
The Shorthorned Grasshoppers
The Longhorned Grasshoppers
Pretty Katydids
The Cricket-like Grasshoppers
The Cheery Cricket People
A Large Family
Hemiptera
The Great Bug Family
The Water Boatman
The Funny Back-swimmers
The Giant Water Bug
Little Mrs. Shore Bug
The Airy Water Striders
A Queer Fellow
The Well Dressed Lace Bug
A Bad Bug
The Troublesome Red Bug
The Ravenous Chinch Bugs
The Well Protected Stink Bug
The Louse
Bird Lice and Book Lice
Friend Cicada
The Odd Spittle Insect
Pretty Leaf Hoppers
The Comical Tree Hoppers
The Jumping Plant Lice
The Aphids
Scale Bugs
The Horned Corydalus
Fairy Lacewing
The Ant Lion
The Little Caddice Flies
GLOSSARY