The Insect Folk

Dragon-flies, katydids, the funny back-swimmers and little Mrs. Shore Bug — Morley walks children through the insect world by asking them to go and LOOK: “books will help you, but you must watch, too.”

About the Book

1903Published
Margaret Warner MorleyAuthor
66Chapters
80Pages on this site

The Insect Folk (1903) is Margaret Warner Morley's introduction to the insects for young readers, written to be read aloud and acted on: catch the creature under a tumbler, feed it, watch it, let it go.

Her chapters are character studies — the shorthorned and longhorned grasshoppers, pretty katydids, the water boatman, the giant water bug, the fairy lacewing — drawn from life and illustrated by her own hand, with a glossary teaching children to pronounce the Latin.

This digital edition is built from a dual-engine OCR, reconciled page by page, with the original illustrations.

This site reproduces the complete text of the original 1903 edition, digitized page by page from the original printing. The book is in the public domain.

Rights & ReuseThe complete text of The Insect Folk (1903) is in the public domain in the United States — like all works published before 1928 — and is free to read, download, quote, teach from, and reuse. This digital edition (its transcription, restored images, and site design) is © 2026 PhotoOpAI, and any editorial commentary we add is clearly marked as ours; the underlying public-domain text carries no such restriction.