2i2 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



eighteenth annual meeting of the latter body forming Bulletin 

 No. 60 of the Bureau. In this we are reminded that the economic 

 entomologist takes cognisance not only of insects properly so- 

 called, but likewise of spiders and myriapods ; while now and 

 then, as in the case of the wood-louse and the pill-millipede, he 

 may be called upon to deal with members of the crustacean 

 class. Something considerably over a million would be only a 

 moderate estimate for the number of species of insects, spiders, 

 and myriapods ; and to describe them and their life-histories 

 adequately would require a library of some seven thousand 

 stout octavo volumes. Assuming, however, only one-half of 

 these to be of any economic importance, it is estimated that 

 between three thousand and four thousand similar volumes 

 would be necessary to contain a full account of them, with 

 discussions of their ravages and the remedies required to check 

 the same. Evidently, then, the economic entomologist must be 

 endowed with great powers of application and possessed of a 

 great store of knowledge, in order to be able to grapple 

 effectively with his task ; although it is, of course, not to be 

 assumed for a moment that any one man is capable of being 

 a specialist in every part of such a vast subject. 



During recent years the field of work of the economic ento- 

 mologist has been very greatly widened. The connection of 

 insects with human disease, as exemplified by the propagation 

 of malaria by mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles and of yellow- 

 fever by those of Stegomyia, forms, for instance, a portion of his 

 studies ; while the relations of insects to the diseases of plants, 

 and also the fertilising of flowers by insect agency, are likewise 

 subjects which should come within his purview, although too 

 often in the past they have received less attention at his hands 

 than their importance merits. Again, the application of scientific 

 methods to bee-keeping and to silk-worm-rearing is likewise 

 intimately connected with economic entomology in its wider 

 sense. 



After all, however, and more especially from a popular point 

 of view, the great and prime work of a bureau of entomology is 

 to check and keep, so far as possible, under control the insect 

 pests which from time to time inflict such grievous injuries on 

 our corn, fruit, garden, cotton, sugar, and other crops, as well as 

 on our forests and our nurseries of } T oung trees and plants. To 

 prevent such "plagues" from rendering the country a desert, 



