Great Hike Part 25

THE ORDER DIPTERA.

This order includes all the true flies or insects having but two wings.

There is probably no other order of insects that are more injurious to the health of human beings. The housefly, because of its habits, is a virulent pest in the spreading of disease and it has been discovered that certain mosquitoes carry the germs of malarial and yellow fevers.

MOSQUITOES.

Up to the year 1900 little had been known about these insects. Since then it has been discovered that one genus is responsible for the transfer of malarial fever and another variety is the sole means of the spreading of yellow fever. Mosquitoes are found in any locality where stagnant standing water allows them the opportunity to breed. Their eggs are laid in a flat ma.s.s on the surface of the water, and each of these ma.s.ses contains from 200 to 400 eggs. The young mosquitoes issue from the under side of the eggs, coming to the surface frequently to breathe, which they do by means of a long tube at the end of the body which is thrust up above the surface of the water. In many localities boy scouts have been interested in exterminating mosquitoes, the most successful methods being either the abolition of their breeding places, the flooding of surfaces of stagnant water with kerosene, or the introduction of fish into fishless ponds. In a mosquito crusade every receptacle for standing water must be found and either destroyed or treated with kerosene.

MIDGES.

Midges are small or minute flies; swarms of them are commonly seen in damp localities in the summer.

FLIES.

Horseflies are unusually abundant in the neighborhood of ponds and streams.

The Robber Flies, or bee-killers, are the hawks of the insect world, preying upon their victims on the wing. In flying an insect is likely to become the victim to their sharp little dagger, which they carry in their beak. It is said that they will frequent a favorite position near a beehive and make frequent trips back and forth, and hundreds of empty bodies of bees are found beneath this perch.

The Dancefly is so called because of the up-and-down movement which they make in their swarms.

The Housefly. These insects are highly injurious to human beings because of their agency in spreading germs of such diseases as typhoid fever and Asiatic cholera. It has been discovered recently that germs of infantile paralysis are conveyed by the housefly.

THYSANOPTERA.

To this order belong very small insects known as "thrips." They are found in large numbers in flowers and in the heads of grain, chrysanthemum, hydrangea, orange-blossom, cabbage leaf, cauliflower, squash, turnips and other plants.

HEMIPTERA

includes plant-lice, scale insects and bugs proper. One entomologist says: "If anything were to exterminate the destroyers of hemiptera, we, ourselves, would probably be starved in the course of a few months," so harmful are they to vegetation. One of the best-known insects of this order is the cicada or harvestfly, popularly but wrongly called the "locust," the term "locust" belonging rightfully to the long-horned gra.s.shoppers. The body of the cicada is large with a blunt head. At the end of July and early in August its song may be heard in the treetops.

The queer-shaped treehoppers also belong to this order. When they are resting upon a twig, it is difficult, except upon close examination, to distinguish them from a thorn or a natural protuberance of the wood.

The Spittle Insects. After hatching from the egg the young insects live in little frothy ma.s.ses like spittle on the stems of plants and gra.s.ses.

Scale Insects. Many of the members of this family are very injurious to fruit trees and other trees. They feed upon the sap.

The Oyster-sh.e.l.l Bark Louse is found particularly upon apple and pear trees.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SCALE INSECTS.]

Plant Lice. These insects prey upon cultivated plants. Huxley computed that the uninterrupted breeding of ten generations of plant lice from the single insect would produce a bulk equal to the population of the Chinese Empire, 500,000,000 of human beings. We have already spoken of the relations between ants and plant lice; they are often called "Ant Cows" because of the ant's habit of milking them for the juices which they exhume.

THE TRUE BUGS.

The "Water Boatmen" may be found swimming on the surface of water. They often go below the surface, carrying with them a bubble of air which is held by the hairs of their body. They hibernate in the mud at the bottom of the water. The eggs of these insects are made into cakes and are eaten by the Indians.

Another family of water bugs are properly called the "back swimmers"

because of their habit of swimming on their backs. They prey upon other water insects and even fish. They can sting with their beak.

TOAD BUGS.

They have a short, wide body, protruding eyes and toad-like color. They are found in damp places under the banks of ponds and streams.

The Water Striders are the long-legged insects which run over the surface of the water with such speed that it is difficult to catch them.

The Cannibal Bugs, the Pirate Bugs, are preying insects which feed upon other insects whose blood they suck. A species of this insect was especially abundant in the Eastern States in 1898. Their bites and blood-sucking habits gave cause to the "kissing-bug" scare to which the newspapers gave great publicity.

THE AMBUSH BUGS

is the name which Professor Comstock has given to insects frequenting yellow flowers, with which its color agrees and hides it from other insects visiting the flowers.

THE SQUASH BUG

is the enemy of vegetables of the pumpkin family and has a distinctly disagreeable odor.

THE STINK BUGS

are small flat bugs which, like the Squash Bug, have a bad odor. One of this family is still called, in Georgia, "The Abe Lincoln" bug, and in Texas, "The Third Party" bug.

THE CINCH BUGS.

This is a bug that makes a specialty of corn and gra.s.ses as a diet.