OF WASHINGTON. 397 



The election of officers for 1893 resulted as follows: Presi 

 dent, C. V. Riley ; Vice-Presidents, W. H. Ashmead and C. W. 

 Stiles; Recording Secretary, C. L. Marlatt ; Corresponding 

 Secretary, L. O. Howard ; Treasurer, E. A. Schwarz ; addi 

 tional members of Executive Committee, W. H. Fox, Geo. Marx, 

 and B. E. Fernow. 



The retiring President, Prof. C. V. Riley, delivered his An 

 nual Address : 



ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 



PARASITISM IN INSECTS. 

 BY C. V. RILEY, PH. D. 



Annual addresses, such as that required of your presiding offi 

 cer, usually fall into three categories those which are in the 

 nature of a review of the leading events of the year ; those which 

 take stock of the past work and history of the Society and are 

 suggestive as to its future ; and those which deal with some special 

 topic having no relation to the events of the year or to the Society. 

 Precedent in other similar societies justifies either style, and each 

 is valuable in its way. The annual address at the close of the 

 first year of our organization in a measure combined the three 

 categories, but since then a marked preference has been shown 

 for the last mentioned. Thus, for the year 1886 we had from 

 Mr. Howard an instructive and suggestive dissertation on the 

 anatomy, taxonomy, and morphology of the Chalcididag, and for 

 1887 a study of the parasitism of cosmopolitan insects. For 1888 

 Mr. Schwarz gave us an admirable summary of the Coleoptera 

 common to North America and other countries, and in 1889 

 treated us to a historical review of the North American publica 

 tions on entomology. For 1890 and 1891 Dr. Marx followed 

 with purely arachnological subjects, each in its way comprehen 

 sive and suggestive. I propose to follow the more common 

 precedent and to offer you to night some thoughts upon the subject 

 of parasitism among insects. 



The most casual glance at the life upon our planet at once 

 reveals the great extent of parasitism, both in the animal and veg- 



