THE CHEM AW A
AM ERICAN
15
from its head serve sometimes as organs of hearing and smell.
An ant is a good example of an insect because the three parts of the
body are distinctly shown.
The eyes of insects are conspicuous. If you examine closely you
find that the eyes of an insect are made up of a thousand or more
simple eyes. The insect breathes through openings in the side called
spiracles. Some insects have wings, while others have not. Spiders
are not insects, although they have long been thought so; they have eight
legs.
Many insects eat other insects that are harmful; those that ruin fruit
trees, flowers and vegetables.
The codling moth and curculio are destructive insects; they lay their
eggs in the fruit or bore into the tree and lay eggs there, but here is one
of our friends, the Ichneumon fly. It is very pretty as well as valuable.
It bores into the trunk of trees and deposits its eggs there, which in
about fifteen days will hatch out and destroy our enemies that are inside
the tree. The little lady bugs feed on plant lice and the eggs and larvae
of other insects.
In California the aphides are on the verge of destroying the cantaloupe
crop; one hundred and fifty million lady bugs are needed to protect the
crop. The people of the east are very fond of cantaloupes and are on
the side of the lady bugs. This is the same little lady bug which we
used to hold up on the finger in those days gone by and thus address:
Lady bug-, lady bug, fly away home
Your house is on fire and
Your children are gone.”
But we never dreamed in uttering that refrain that the pretty little
lady bug would come to be a national necessity and be called upon to
save the cantaloupe from a cruel enemy.
The Dragon fly and Damsel fly are very much alike. They have beau
tiful, gauzy wings, the difference between the two is that the Damsel
fly is smaller and folds her wings when she alights, the Dragon fly be
ing just the reverse. They are enemies of mosquitoes, flies and gnats,
and while flying through the air they catch many insects.
1 lie ant is a very strong little insect and always manages to catch
what it wants, which is most always worms, bugs aad flies.
If you desire clean fruit instead of worm-eaten ones, if you like to
look at pretty flowers, then destroy the harmful insects and save the
useful ones.