Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Entomologist, Vol. 8
The importance of insects to us, both as sources of good or evil, I shall endeavour to prove at large hereafter; but for the present, taking this for granted, it necessarily follows that the study of them must also be important for when we sud'er from them, if we do not know the cause, how are we to apply a remedy that may diminish or prevent their ravages? Ignorance in thls respect often occasions us to mistake our enemies for our friends, and our friends for our enemies; so that when we think to do good we only do harm, destroying the innocent and letting the guilty escape. Many such instances have occurred. Middleton, in his 'agriculture of Middlesex, ' speaking of the plant-louse that is so injurious to the bean, tells us that the ladybirds are supposed either to generate or to feed upon them. Had he been an entomologist he would have been in no doubt whether they were beneficial or injurious; on the contrary, he would have recommended that they should be encouraged as friends to man, since no insects are greater devourers of plant-lice. - ID.
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