OF WASHINGTON. 21 



of the most important events in the history of American 

 entomology. With the perfection of this organization we will 

 ultimately not only have as many official entomologists as we 

 have States, but with them just as many centers for instruc 

 tion and diffusion of entomological knowledge, so that the 

 beneficial influence of these stations on the future study of 

 entomology cannot be estimated high enough. And even if, 

 for the present, an exclusively popular and practical treatment 

 of entomological subjects is required from these stations, a 

 great deal of purely scientific matter naturally must be, and, 

 in fact, has already been accumulated in the Bulletins of the 

 stations. 



We all remember that at the very start one or two of these 

 bulletins were not of a promising nature, but we have now a 

 large number which are excellent in their popular and practi 

 cal bearings, and at the same time valuable contributions to 

 purely scientific entomology. And this high standard will be 

 maintained and still increased in future by the combined force 

 of ambition and competition. 



Considered as publications these bulletins are difficult to 

 classify ; they are neither separate books nor can most of them 

 properly be placed in the periodicals. But this is a matter of 

 very subordinate importance, and since these publications are 

 of very recent date their proper status will sooner or later be 

 regulated. Intrinsically, they are no doubt fully comparable 

 with, and fully equal to, the Reports of the State Entomolo 

 gists, and I was amazed, therefore, at a resolution recently 

 passed at a representative assembly of the official entomologists 

 to the purport that descriptions of new species should be ex 

 cluded from the bulletins, whereas there has never been any 

 doubt expressed regarding the propriety of such descriptions 

 whenever they became necessary in the reports of the State 

 officers. It seems to me that the entomologists have overlooked 

 the fact that, scientifically, there is not the slightest difference 

 in the value of a description of a new species and the descrip 

 tion of an hitherto unknown or but imperfectly known life 

 history of some insect. The one is a novelty for systematic, 

 the other a novelty for biographic entomology. Such bio- 



