Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-09
COLLECTING INSECTS
IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY OF
LITTLE ANIMALS.
Entomology Was Once Classed as a
Hobby and Its Devotees
as Cranks.
From the Business woman's Magazine.

l.
From the Business woman's Magazine.
The collecting and study of Insects was
once classed as a hobby and a waste Of
time of the enthusiastic collector. but when
we realize that insects are doing from
S3o0o0o0oo to s40o.o0o.O0o damage each
year in the United States. II begins to be
of more importance than a mere hobby.
What farmer can think insects too In
significant to be worthy OF notice when
ne finds that of the tinest OF them
ruins his wheat fields and robs him OF
hundreds and thousands of dollars7 What
gardener but must confess that IL Is high
time he knew something about insects
when his currant and gooseberry bushes
are leafiess and frutless. his plum trees
perfect failure, his peaches nowhere. his
cabbages, no sooner planted than cut OF.
his grape vines desoated with myriads OF
foes: In fact. almost everything that he
grows, attacked root. branch. leaf and
trunk? What pomologist but must ac-
knowledge the power and restless activity
of the borer in the trunk of his young
trees, the caterpilars the leaves, the
bark-lice on trunk and branches the worms
in the very core of the fruit itself? The
hop grower suffers from the aphs and
green caterpillar: the furrier from the
larvae of beetles and moths the timber
merchant from the borer; the butcher from
the biowfiy; the housewife with the clothes
the entomolosist, that perhaps started his
collecting a hobby and became so fas-
cinated with this work that he decided to
learn the habits of each insect and how
best to get rid of the iniurers and TO learn
which were beneficial because they were
destroyers of the injurious ones, for there
are hundreds OF insects that are bene-
fetal.
The Ichneumon.
The iehneumon. comprising over eleven
hundred species. are a wonder In them
selves, If there were no others. They de-
rive their name. both common and scien-
| tific, from the ichneumon of Egypt. which
is almost worshipped in that country be-
| cause it destroys the eggs and young of
| the crocodile The common name given
him In Egypt is Pharaoh's rat Probably
! a species of the rat family. but applied to
one insect because Of its destructive habits
TO many species of our injurious insects
one species having an instinct given him
| to know where the maple tree borer is
eating out the heart of the tree The
female ichneumon bores into the tree with
| a very fine needle-ike sting that soon
| reaches the larvae or worm and lays her
| eggs on him. which hatch out and
| destroy him as food for themselves. An
| other is so very small that she lays an egg
| in butterfiys egg that Is about the size
| of pinhead. Matching out and living in
| the butterhys egg till IL transforms into
| a perfect ichneumon. Others destroy large
| numbers Of worms and caterpiliars; one
| attacks the tomato worm, laying its eggs
! in the fatty substance of the worm. which
| soon matches out into small worm or
| larvae, living on the fat OF the larger worm
till IL sheds its last or fifth skin, called
uoulting Then the ichneumon comes out
| upon the outside and nearly covers the
worm with small white cocoons. And so
we might tell OF many others that are a
benefit to man IN destroying Injurious in
Sects
The Cooling Moth.
But let us look at some of the other in
furious insects. The codling moth that
laws about three hundred eggs, one on
each apple. When about the size OF FL
berts the egg soon matches with tiny
worm that eats into the apple. and. OF
course. doing great damage to the apple
crop and, l presume, hundreds of farm
ers have never seen the handsome bronze
colored moth that does much injury
to his crop. The chinch bug. a terrible
scourge to the wheat. and the Hessian fly,
a close second to the above on the wheat
and supposed to have been brought into
this country by the Hessian soldiers that
the British hired to help subdue our fore
fathers. The insects were supposed to he
in the straw they used to sleep on. and the
fly has done much more damage than the
soldiers for whom they were named
Then the Colorado potato beetle that
has caused much extra work to raise
potatoes. and. years ago. was only known
as native of the Rocky mountains. living
on wild plant related to the potato. and
the only insect that has travelled from the
west to the east and then only after civil
lization had travelled from the east to the
west. settling near the everlasting hills.
planting their potatoes. the beetles. taxi
ing more kindly to the cultivated article,
travelling from one potato patch to the
next. so continuing until II reached the
Atlantic coast. taking about twenty years.
1t was a very interesting study to the
fasteners to watch each years progress
toward their eastern shore. well re-
member the first one l saw. flying with It's
tinted red wings. l made a quick dive
for 1t and found. after its capture, that it
was only a potato bug. I thought l was
going to have a new addition to my COL
lection. but had. years before. received
from a friend in the west specimens for
my cabinet.
Cabbage Butterfly.
The cabbage butterfly is another very
interesting insect known scientifically I'M
der the name OF pieris. We will only mem
ton pieris rapae. a butterfly introduced
into this country from England by way OF
Canada. about 1857, and now covering tho
whole Of North America. 1t is thought
the eggs OF the butterfly were on the loose
leaves OF cabbages on one OF the large
steamers from England to Canada, which
were thrown overheard while the boat lay
at the dock and the eggs Matched into
larvae, living on the CABBAGE leaves until
matured. And from that small beginning
they have spread throughout the whole
country. doing millions of dollars damage.
One cannot set out two dozen cabbage
plants before the butterfly will be flying
around. They are black and white in coll
or; the larvae Is green. finely dotted with
black and a yellow stripe down the back.
and a row of yellow spots each side.
They differ from other cabbage worms by
eating into the heart OF the cabbage, and
on this account the French call Il the yer
du occur. or heart worm. Before closing,
must mention the scarabaes SANGER. the
sacred beetle of Egypt. 1t Is quite a large
plain black beetle and was once worshiped
by the ancient Egyptians, the king using
a seal ring in the form OF the beetle,
which was caleb a scarab. Many his
torical facts have been obtained of ancient
Egypt from writings engraved on stone
scarabs. the British museum having guam
titles of them. AZ the Denver public Il
brary there is very interesting book Crhe
Sacred Beetle) that illustrates hundreds OF
nh