LIBRARY

42
COLLEGE ENTOMOLOGY
Scaring or bluffing devices
Grotesque forms; bright colors and markings; greatly enlarged appendages;
sounds: stridulating, buzzing, drumming.
Defensive weapons
Stinging hairs, set.re, spines; offensive fluids; strong jaws; strong crushing
and kicking legs; ovipositor, sting, camouflaging.
Offensive weapons
Volatile fluids, sticky secretions, mandibles, sting.
REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM AND REPRODUCTION IN INSECTS
Sexuality in insect.s is one of those subjects that may be pursued indefinitely
without ever knowing all of the facts and details that are concerned with the
most fundamental part of all life - that of reproduction. The ancient idea
that insects originated spontaneoHsly or by some "vivifying principle" was
dispelled in part by Francis Redi in 1668, but even to this day thousands of
supposedly educated human beings know little or nothing about how these
small animals are able to maintain themselves continuously in such great
numbers.
The early investigations of Hooke (1637-1703), Malpighi (1628-1694),
Swammerdam (1637-1680), and Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), with the aid of the
microscope, revealed that insects were perfect animals with all of the possibili.
ties of life and development of larger animals, but with many peculiarities until
then wholly unknown and unsuspected. The veil of obscurity partly lifted by
these "minute anatomists" was drawn much further back by the researches of
Redi (1626-1698), Frisch (1666-1743), Reaumur (1683-1758), Bonnet (1707-
1789), Reesel von Rosenhof (1705-1759), Linnreus (1707-1778), and a host of
other almost equally competent students in many parts of Europe. It is remark·
able how rapidly the intricacies of insect life were unraveled and exposed to the
view of a curious but unappreciative world.
Practically all of the exact information we now have about these multitudinous
and partly beneficial, mostly pestiferous and destructive. insects has been
accumulated within the past three centuries. Knowledge has advanced to the
greatest degrees along systematic and bionomic lines, and while considerable
information has been accumulated relating to anatomy and physiology, much
remains to be accomplished before we can compare that knowledge with
achievements in the study of man and the higher animals. At the present time
very great interest is manifested in these intricate and obscure problems relating
to the inner life and reactions of insects as individuals and as members of the
great scheme of nature. One of these important phenomena, reproduction, is
probably as little known as any of the natural processes of this gigantic group
of minutire.
Owing to lack of space it is inadvisable to attempt to trace the origin of
accumulated knowledge relating to the sexuality of insects, nor is it possible
even to tabulate the many ramifications and particulars that enter into a discussion
of any of the many phases of this subject.