58 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



species of Culicidae were credited to that State less than one- 

 third of the number now known to occur there. 



This increased interest in the early stages of our Diptera is cer 

 tain to result in a better understanding of these insects ; no mat 

 ter how expert a student may become in separating the adults into 

 their proper species, it is not until we obtain a knowledge of all 

 of the early stages of any given form that its status as a species 

 becomes fully established, and it is to be hoped that investiga 

 tions in this direction will be continued until the early stages of 

 every Dipteron in our fauna has been made known. 



The presidential address was favorably commented upon by 

 Messrs. Ulke, Kotinsky, Ashmead, Schwarz, Gill and others. 

 Mr. Ulke stated that he was indebted to Dr. Loew for his first 

 knowledge of real insect collecting, the latter having, some sev 

 enty years ago, visited his father's home, in Germany, and shown 

 him the method of using the various implements employed in in 

 sect collecting. Dr. Gill said that he agreed with Mr. Coquillett 

 that a generic name should be considered as preoccupied only 

 when the previously proposed name agreed with it exactly, letter 

 for letter. He remarked, however, that many, perhaps the 

 majority, of systematists would take issue with him on this point. 



Dr. Hopkins read a paper entitled " Notes on the Scolytidae 

 of the Fitch Collection," and exhibited specimens from the Fitch 

 collection in the National Museum. He referred to the note 

 books examined by him in the library of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History, and called attention to Fitch's method of num 

 bering and labeling specimens. The collection represents twenty- 

 four species, including five which are still undescribed. The 

 species were identified and arranged by Dr. Hopkins, in his 

 paper, according to his manuscript Synopsis and Check-List of 

 the Scolytidae of America north of Mexico. He thought best, 

 therefore, to withhold the paper from publication until the syn 

 opsis shall have been published. 



Mr. Ulke said that he saw Fitch some fifty years ago. The reason 

 there were so many wrongly named Coleoptera in the Fitch col 

 lection was because Fitch had been unable to secure any help 

 from coleopterists. Fitch told him that he had written repeatedly 



