18 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



they do not subscribe to the entomological journals of their 

 own country. Thus the American Entomologist, edited by 

 Walsh and Riley, lived only for two volumes (1868-1870), but 

 revived afterwards (1880) for a third volume ; the second 

 periodical of this kind, the North American Entomologist, 

 edited by Grote, was starved to death in the first year of its 

 existence (1881). The Practical Entomologist, edited by 

 Walsh, was published by the Entomological Society of Phila 

 delphia, and occupies, therefore, an intermediate position be 

 tween the serials I am speaking about and the Society publi 

 cations. At any rate, it has been the first periodical exclusively 

 devoted to economic entomology, and is in every respect the 

 predecessor of the American Entomologist. As a continuation 

 of this last may be considered ' ' Insect Life, ' ' edited by Prof. 

 Riley, and which, since it is published by a government in 

 stitution, constitutes a unique feature in the entomological 

 literature. These three monthlies, the Practical Entomologist, 

 the American Entomologist, and Insect Life, devoted almost ex 

 clusively to the biography and economy of insects, form a 

 unique series to which there is nothing comparable in the 

 European literature ; and all I can name of similar works, 

 is a French monthly, the " Bulletin d'Insectologie agricole," 

 and perhaps also the Hungarian " Rovartani Lapok." 



Entomological societies were formed at a very early time, 

 and London, in England, can boast of having harbored the 

 first seven societies of this kind. The oldest of them, the 

 Societas Aureliana, is said to have flourished as early as 1745, 

 but nothing is known of it except that in 1748 a fire destroyed 

 its library and collection, and that this conflagration was also 

 the end of the Society. Of the three following societies we 

 also know nothing except their names, but the Societas Ento- 

 mologica, in London, founded in 1806, was the first to issue a 

 periodical under the title ' ' Transactions of the Entomological 

 Society of London," edited by Haworth, one volume thereof 

 being completed between 1807 and 1812. But in 1813 the 

 Society disbanded, for reasons unknown to me. After a long 

 interval the Entomological Club of London started, in 1831, 

 "The Entomological Magazine." After that date entomolog- 



