The Florida star., 1909-07-09

The WonderFsa RapSdlty Whh WhIsh
0omo lnsosAs lnepuaao.

The W0DdorfA RaptdstV W4h Whteh
eems InsssAs Insrsaso.
I've are the army Of the great
God. We produce nnety-nine eggs.
If we produced q hundred, We should
consume the whole earth and all
that is in it."
Thus, say the ArabA the locust
addressed MOhammed. And, although
the locust actually lays many more
than q hundred eggs, there are many
other creatures whose power Of null
application vastly exceeds that Of
this terrible insect plague.
The common house Fly is an in
stance in point. It has been COM
puted that one hy In March is rep
resented by 500 on the oath Of
April, and by August that number
has been squared twice, making the
total progeny amount to the appall-
ing number Of &, 100, 600, 900.
The house fly lays eggs, the flesh
fly or bluebottle produces living
larvae. Supposing female to pro-
duee fifty Young, a very small esti-
mate, and half of these to be fe-
males, single season would see one
bluebottle turn into 50S,000,000 of
flesh devouring insects.
What a merciful thing it is that
we have so many allies in the shape
Of birds and wasps and flying eating
insects, who combine to keep down
our enemy, the fly.
Nearly all insects increase rapid
ly. The queen bee will lay eggs at
the rate of 800 an hour, but even
she cannot compete with the ter
mite, the so called white ant. The
queen termite has been known to
lay 1000 eggs a day and to keep
up an average of $4,000 a day for
the whole Of the laying season,
which lasts about a month.
The life of the queen bee is, how
ever, longer than that of the ter
mite. She lives and goes on laying
for four or five summers and in her
lifetime laws at least a million and
a half of eggs.
All who have gardens know what
a pest the green fy, or aphis, be-
comes 1t seems to cover rose trees
like magic.
The aphis is, in one way, the most
startling of all forms of insect life,
for, although the females can and do
lay eggs, its usual method of in
crease is by a sort of budding proc
ess, the young growing on the
bodies Of the parents exactly as
brussels sprouts grow out of the
stalk of the plant.
The old produce young at the
rate of twenty-five a day, and as the
young are at once mature each can
produce its twenty-five on the fol-
lowing day.
1t positively frightens one to work
this multiplication out to a conclu-
sion, for it means this: Supposing
that the aphis could increase and
multiply without interference, the
twenty-ifth generation would be a
number too long to quote here. Put
down a one and follow it with twen-
ty-eight naughts, and you will be
within a few millions of it.
But fsh are the champion egg lay
ers. The average number of eggs
in a halibut is $500, 900, while a
good sized cod may contain as many
as 100000. A small one pound
sole has been found to have 134, 900
eggs.
Of land animals the rabbit holds
the palm for rapid increase. A rab-
bit breeds seven times a year, pro-
ducing about eight young at a time.
1t will be seen, therefore, that the
bird as egg layer comes last of all. |
Indeed, the poor, common or gar
den hen, whose eggs are those we
most esteem, is left hopelessly out |
of natures egg laying race.-Balti- |
more Sun.