"Bugs are just bugs to most people, but not to Wilbur R. Enns, director of the entomological museum at the University. After twenty years of close acquaintance with insects, Dr. Enns has found that they have personalities as varied and as curious as do human beings."--Page 1

Hansbrough, Vivian

English

University of Missouri: MOspace

These waler beetles look alil!e but have s/iglll differences. Wilbur Enns, enlo111ological mw;eu,n director, rlis/J/ays a case of moths from the S011lli Pacific r~~j -:JI ,4}1 .... ~-eae --10 '.,, .. .. ........... --... .. -AtAMJt ~ -.. l#Nlf •""4 ~, Those Fascinating Insects Bugs are just bugs to most peop'.e, but not to \ 1Vilbur R. Enns, director of the entomological museum at the University. After twenty years of dose acquaintance with insects, Dr. Enns has found that they have personalities as varied and as curious as do human beings. A museum visitor can be both entertained and informed by hearing of the peculiarities of some common insects. I-le learns that most bugs t_urn up their heels and die from a dose of nicotine. The cigarette beetle, how-ever, thrives on the stuff, merrily making tunnels through Havana cigars or North Carolina cigarettes, showing no preference for brand names. Nothing would please him more than .a luscious clip of snuff. A11other insect with a tas te for flavor is the red pepper beetle, whose favorite dish is obvious. But the one with an appetite for lethal doses is the drugstore beet '.e, which feeds on anything from penicillin througl,1 various kinds of poisonous drugs without any noticeable after-effects. Then there is the death watch beetle, which derived its name be-cause of its habit of banging its head against the wood as it moved about in the walls of an old house. In the quiet of a wake, neighbors sitting with a corpse heard this ticking in the wall, and it sounded like a watch. So this poor little bug, who banged his head as often when people were alive as dead, became known as the death watch beetle. The red-shouldered leaf beetle reposing peacefully in a glass case could tell a strange tale of family feeding habits . The adult feeds on leaves, but its young grubs live in the nes t of ants . Since ants are very particular about their nests, the question is, how clo the little grubs get in there? Go not to the ant, but to the beetle for the answer. The female carefuJ:y extrudes an egg and catches it with her hind feet. Then holding it, she decorates it with a secretion of waxy scales until it resembles a seed. This she drops ·where the ants will find it. They mistake it for a seed, take it to their nest 16 / MISSOURI ALUMNUS / APRIL '57 Three wildlife majors bone uj1 for a /J1'aclirnl quiz in Aquatic Entomology. This grrul1111te student's study of 75 lyj1e.1· of waler beetles will result i11 liis doctoral disserlaliu11. By VIVIAN HANSBROUGH and store it, along with the rest of their winter supply. There the grubby sluggard grows, feeding on the ants ' food . Actually, a very small portion of Dr. Enns' time is consumed in escorting visitors around the museum. A more important part of his job is to identify strange insects mailed by persons worried ,ibout the crawling creatures' influence on Missouri crops. Using 2r,,ooo specimens in the museum coll ection for reference, he decides whether the unidentified bugs are expensive pests or innocent bystanders. Only one-tenth of one per cent of a ll the insects of the world are harmful, yet this small percentage destroys one-tenth of all the crops that man produces. In cotton, every seventh potential bale goes to feed the boll weevil. While some insects are man's most destructive enemies, others arc his most valuable allies. People could not get along on this earth with-out the activity of insects in pollinating fruit, veget-able and forage crops and in controlling harmful insects. . The entomology department of the University has a staff of twelve teachers who train agriculture and forestry students to recognize the most prevalent of 1 r,,ooo types of insects found in Missouri. In ad-dition to local examples, the museulll contains many exotic specimens. "Why do you ha ve these Foreign insects:-" is a qucs-17 / MISSOURI ALUMNUS. / APRIL '57 Lion asked frequently by v1s1tors. Dr. Enns explai11~ that airplanes pick up unwanted insects, although rnstoms oflicials are extraorclinarily cflic:ient at detection ancl elimination or such cargo. Foreign pests woulcl be rninous umler c:o11clitions where natural enemies are not present to keep them under control. Therefore, the museum has representatives of l'orcign species for identification purposes. Laboratories in the entomology department are e'luippcd with enough microscopes for each member of a class to examine under a powerful lens the speci-mens he is to classif)', By the encl o[ the basic course, Appliecl Entomology, each student brings in his col-lection of at least fifty different kinds of insects, which is added to the accumulation in the museum. Each year some three hundred different boys take courses in entomology at 'the University. They will become veterinarians, vocational agriculture teachers, county agents, foresters, beekeepers, high school sci-ence teachers, managers of fisheries. Some of them are foreign students who will return to their native countries to practice what they have learned in America. All of them will be rnore alert to the clangers and benefits of various insects after their study of entomology. Vivian Hansbrough is a graduate student in the University 's School Df Journalism and instrnclor in journalism at Steph en.~ Collrgc. l'ho1ographs hy the author. 

Those fascinating insects

https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/bitstream/10355/77196/1/MizzouAlumnus1957AprilP16-17.pdf

Those fascinating insects

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