The Gem state rural. [volume], August 15, 1896, Image 1

About The Gem state rural. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho) 1895-1910

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THE GEM STATE RURAL
VOLUME i.
CALDWELL, IDAHO, AUGUST
NUMBER i2
1896.
REPORTS & fAPERS
Read at the Annual fleeting of
the State Horticultural Asso
ciation, Boise City, Jan
uary 22nd, 1896.
INSECTS.
Some Genera! Remarks by Robt. Milliken, of the
Standing Committee on Entomology.
It is conceded by those who
have given the subject careful
study, that more than one-third
of the products of our orchards,
gardens and fields are every year
destroyed, in one way or another,
by insects.
The Secretary of Agriculture
in his recent report for 1894-5,
gives the approximate valuation
of the agricultural and horticul
tural prodnets at $2,300,000,000.
One-third of this would be over
$776,000,000.
Astounding as these figures are
they represent the tax we pay for
our want of knowledge of the na
ture and habits of these marauders
upon our preserves, and the best
methods of combating their des
tructive ravages. From the day
the seed is planted until the grain
or the fruit has served its mission
as a minister to the comfort or
nourishment of man or animal,
there is a continual strife and war
fare for the possession of the pro
ducts, and too often the smaller of
the two contestants becomes the
victor.
For convenience in studying
organic life, naturalists have di
vided the various classes into or
ders, species, varieties, etc.
The class known as insects is
called from the form of the
perfect insect, and means cut
into from the latin word msecta —
cut in—from the way the head,
thorax and abdomen of the insect
which gives the class its
so
are apparently nearly cut apart
from each other.
This peculiar
form,
distinctive name, is most readily
and some others,
seen in the wasp
but like all other features is sub
ject to infinite variations, and al
is not al
though always present
ways apparent to the uncultivated
of the superficial observer.
Insects always have the three
eve
divisions of the body into head,
thorax and abdomen, as indicated
above, with six legs attached to
the thorax or middle division, and
pass through a series of changes
consisting of four stages, each en
tirely distinct and unlike the other.
The first is the egg in which there
is the most similarity, thi second
the larva, in which the greatest
amount of damage is done.
The larva of insects have dif
ferent names according- to their
form or appearance-—such as mag
got,
etc.
worm, grub, caterpillar,
In this stage nearly all are
active and very voracious feeders.
It is said that the maggot of the
blow-fly increases 200 times in 24
hours.
Linneus estimated that
two of these flies and their imme
diate progeny would consume the
carcass of a horse sooner than a
lion could do it.
ln this as in -the other stages
there is great diversity of form,
many differing but little from the
perfect or winged state.
chinch-bug and grasshoppers show
but little difference to the eye of
the ordinary observer other than
the absence of wings, yet to all
intents and purposes the stages
are distinct and complete. In
most cases, however, the change
is very marked. The third stage
is called the pupa stage, from the
fancied resemblance of the chrys
alids or cases in w'hich a majority
pass this stage to a babe in swad
dling clothes, and the almost
complete helplessness of the in
sect at this time. Some do not
take on this helpless chrysalis con
The
are
cious feeders all the time, as the
chinch-bug and grasshopper.
The silk of commerce is the
thread of the pupa-case of the
silk worm, unwound after killing
the pupa inside.
The fourth stage is called the
imago, and is the highest and
most complete of the chain, in
which neqrly all have wings and
fly about. There is a greater
j diversity of appearance and habit
j in this stage than in any other.
i The normal number of wings is
four, but in many two are sup
pressed and i
wings are not developed at all,
in some cases the
being only represented by rudi
ments or scales. Familiar ex
amples are the insects parasitic
upon the human body, infesting
beds and houses, as fleas, bed
bugs, etc.
There seems to be a great con
trast in the larva and imago stages
as regards the beauty of form and
coloring. Many of the most
loathsome worms develop into
beautiful and gaudy perfect in
sects, while others more highly
colored and showy as larva be
come the plainest as imagoes.
When we contemplate the met
amorphosis of the insect through
the four stages, from the
through the crawling, wriggling
larva, with its voracions appetite
and its diversity of form, the
helpless pupa and the beautiful
imago in its perfect stage, with
the condition of the sexes clearly
defined, to the egg again, ready
to begin again the cycle, it is one
of the most wonderful things in
eerrr
Öt>
Some one has said, w r hen con
templating this wonderful change;
Were a naturalist to announce
to the world the discovery of an
animal which for the first five
years of its life existed in the form
of a serpent, which then pene
trating the earth and wearing a
shroud of the purest silk of the
finest texture, contracted itself
within this covering into a body
without external mouth or limbs
resembling more than anything
an Egyptian mummy, and which
lastly, after remaining in this state
for three years should, at the end
of that period burst through its
earthly covering and start into
day a winged bird, what would
be the sensation excited this
C i
piece of intelligence,
this would be no more wonderful
than the ordinary metamorphosis
of insects. Indeed many of the
circumstances are more marvellous
than the supposition above made.
And yet
» »
The time occupied in each stage
varies greatly in different species.
In some the eggs are laid in the
fall and hatched in the sprin
( r
& '
thus passing the winter in the egg
stage, and some pass the winter
in the imago. A very few hiber
! nate in the larva stage, but by far
the greater number winter in the
pupa stage. In some the stages
are of but a few days duration,
as in the blowflies, which increase
with wonderful rapidity, while in
the cicada or harvest fly, often
erroneously called locust, the
larva lasts 17 years, and in others
only a few weeks. The common
white grub, so plentiful in gardens
and old fields in the older states,
is in the grub form three years
and in the imago or beetle form
only about as many weeks. The
perfect insect is the common May
beetle or tumble bug, quite
abundant at some seasons.
Many of the most damaging
pests are only one-brooded and
annual; that is produce but one.
cycle a year, while others are two
brooded or many brooded.
The perfect insects are ranged
in two general classes according
to their mode of taking food.
One class taking liquid food hav
ing a haustella or sucking tube,
and the other being armed with
mandibles or jaws for biting, gives
us the haustellate and the man
*
Only are
destructive to our crops in the
imago stage. The haustellates
are almost always armed with
mandibles in the larval stage.
Did time permit there are many
other points I would like to refer
to in order that we might have a
more thorough knowledge of the
nature and habits of insects, and
which are essential to enable us
to successfully combat these foes
to profitable culture. If a man
knows nothing of the nature and
habits of an insect he is not pre
pared to successfully contend with
it. He is like a general going
into battle w r ith no knowledge of
the resources of his opposing
army.
Some of our best allies in this
warfare may be found in the in
sect world.
"So naturalists observe, a Ilea
Has other lleas that on him prey.
And these have other ileas to bite 'em.
And so proceed ad infinitum."
Many orders of insects are
wholly beneficial to the horticul
turist, others wholly injurious,
while some are partly beneficial
and partly injurious.
Scarcely an insect, good or bad,
but has its parasite in some stage
of its existence. Observe the
stately dragon fly, mosquito hawk,
snake feeder or whatever name
you may know it by as it sails
about from dewy morn till dusky
eve, ready to pounce upon the
unwary fly or mosquito, which he
contentedly devours upon the top
of some neighboring sage brush
What better friend
or weed,
have we than the spotted lady-