24 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
leaves while collecting along the Mississippi in Missouri in years 
gone by, and was puzzled to make out their real nature. In 
May and June, 1883, while collecting on the Virginia side of the 
Potomac with other members of this Society, I found these clay 
cells tolerably common and, fortunately, fresh, each containing a 
large soft white egg. That year I obtained larva?, but only during 
the past year were any of these reared to the imago. Similarly 
remarkable oviposition away from the food or habitat of the 
larva is known in the Lepidoptera and Neuroptera. 
Gentlemen, it is just one year ago this evening that we organ- 
ized, and while we have little to review, it may not be unprofit- 
able to anticipate our future, or at least what we should hope and 
aim for. 
We organized to promote the study of Entomology in all its 
bearings and to cultivate social and friendly relations bet\veen those 
in any way interested in the science. Those most interested in 
the organization had the latter object most prominently in mind. 
We have here in Washington a number of collectors and ama- 
teurs and some well-known specialists, in addition to the force of 
the Entomological Division of the Department of Agriculture. 
The Division constitutes a force that I feel justly proud of, and 
the working of which has been commended by those who have 
had occasion to become familiar with it. Yet how far it falls 
short of my own ideal and of the necessities of the country, or 
how difficult it is to build it up to that ideal under the unfortunate 
political unscientific atmosphere that pervades the Department, 
no one more fully appreciates than myself. The facts remain, 
however, that there is a good number of active observers whose 
interest in the subject of entomology is hot confined to the par- 
ticular biologic and economic work of the Division, but encom- 
passes much that could not properly be brought within its scope. 
The members of the Division have, naturally, become members 
of the Society and form a good basis for its existence ; yet it 
would be manifestly unnecessary, if not improper, for the mem- 
bers of the force to band together in private simply for the dis- 
cussion of those entomological subjects which they are \vorking 
with me to further in official capacities. 
It was to get away from official surroundings, away from the 
work of the U. S. Entomologist, that the members of the Di- 
