SEVENTEEN-YEAR CICADA OR SEVENTEEN-YEAR "LOCUST"
Range: Eastern United States. Pupae emerging from the ground. Detail from Group in the American Museum of Natural History.
Insects play an important part in Nature's activities. From the point of view of man some are beneficial and some are destructive. In the former group may be mentioned the Dragonflies which feed upon mosquitoes, the Cochineal insects of Mexico, which furnish a dye-stuff, the Lady-bird beetles, which in the larval stage feed upon plant lice; the scale insects of India, which furnish shellac; the Bumblebees, which cross-pollinate the clover, and the Wasps, which fertilize the figs. Dr. Lutz says that the manna which fed the Children of Israel was honeydew secreted by a scale insect, and that it is still eaten.
SEVENTEEN-YEAR CICADA OR SEVENTEEN-YEAR "LOCUST"
Range: Eastern United States. The pupa climbing tree trunk. Then it bursts its horny outer skin and crawls out an adult.
The Silkworm and the Honey-bee have been domesticated since prehistoric times, the former supplying a valuable fiber for clothing and the latter an important article of food.
Among the injurious insects a few may be mentioned: the House Fly or Filth Fly, which may carry disease germs on its feet to the food that we eat; the mosquitoes, which transmit yellow fever and malaria, the rat flea, which carries bubonic plague; the weevils, which destroy rice, beans, chestnuts, etc., and the plant lice, or aphids, which, by sucking the juices from ornamental and food plants, are among the most destructive of all insects.
There are so many insects in the world that we cannot hope to learn of them all, even if we wanted to do so, but most of us wish to know the names of those that attract our attention, and to know what they do that is important or interesting. There are approximately 400,000 species or kinds of insects known in the world; that is, about three times as many as there are species or kinds of all the rest of the animals in the world put together. This fact should not hinder us from making a start and becoming familiar with the interesting habits of a few of the insects about us.
The eggs of the Monarch Butterfly may be collected upon the milkweed and brought in, so that the whole life history or metamorphosis of this beautiful insect, from the egg through the larva or caterpillar stage and the pupa or chrysalis stage to the adult butterfly, may be watched. The larvae or caterpillar must be supplied daily with fresh milkweed leaves. Other butterflies and moths and many other insects may be reared in the same way by supplying the larvae with suitable food. If we should find a caterpillar feeding upon the leaves of a maple tree we should continue to feed it maple leaves if we wish to rear it. Silkworms will eat the leaves of Osage-orange, but they seem to prefer mulberry leaves.
Cocoons of moths may be easily collected in winter after the leaves have fallen, and brought in and kept in a cool place until spring when the coming out of the adult moths will be an occurrence of absorbing interest.
