OCR Text |
Show The Insect World. Entomologists generally concede that upward of Jtill.itOO species of insects have been recognized and classified; homo authors au-thors even place the number as high as l,i(),()d0, while it is not at all improbable th.it this Vict niimlHT may not represent more than one-tenth of the number ac-tuully ac-tuully inhabiting tho glnhc. Not let, than one-half of tito whole iiumlx'r belong be-long to tho order coleoputera, or beetles, which order is by far tho most numerously numer-ously represented of all. Tho lepidop-tera, lepidop-tera, or butterflies, have thus far yielded some 15,000 species, or about ono-thir-leenth of tho total number (;!o0,0oll, estimated esti-mated by Speyer for the world at large, and an equal number may perhaps be credited totheliynienoptera(bees, wasps, etc.), tho hemiptera (bugs) and diptera (flies). The orthoptera or straight winged inserts, in-serts, which include the locusts', grasshoppers, grass-hoppers, etc., aro considerably loss numerous. nu-merous. The species with nutted wings (neuroptera) probably number some place between 2,000 and il,(MM. Insects aro, of course, most numerou.dy developed in the tropics, but they aro not rare by any means in the coldest regions which have yet been visited by man. St. Louis Republic. |