OF WASHINGTON. 203 



cellent classificatory work done by Forster, Thomson, Schletterer, 

 Schmiedeknecht, Mayr, Kriechbaumer, Mocsary, Gribodo, Ko- 

 now, Kohl and others are entirely overlooked, and important 

 structural characters pointed out by these masters of our science 

 are ignored. 



It is to draw attention to some of these important characters, 

 therefore, that I address you to-night, and also to point out a few 

 others which I have discovered in over 15 years' study in the order, 

 and which I am only just beginning to use and appreciate in my 

 own systematic work. 



In other departments of zoology, and indeed also by the public 

 at large, the immense work being done by entomologists through 

 out the world the greatness and grandeur of their task is not 

 at all appreciated, when in reality there are probably no more 

 difficult or trying animals in the world to study than the Insecta. 

 They are numbered by millions, although a rough estimate of the 

 number of insects described in the world to-day foots up only a 

 little under 300,000 species, or, more accurately, about 284,000 

 species, as follows : 



Coleoptera, .... 120,000 



Orthoptera, .... 9,000 



Neuroptera, .... 5 ,000 



Lepidoptera, .... 60,000 



Hymenoptera, .... 38,000 



Hemiptera, .... 20,000 



Diptera, 30,000 



284,000 



From this estimate it will be seen that the Hymenoptera known 

 at present are far less numerous than the Coleoptera or the 

 Lepidoptera ; but this great discrepancy is due entirely to the few 

 students at present working in the order, as I firmly believe that 

 their number, when all the parasitic forms are worked up, will 

 be greater than these two great orders combined. 



This rough estimate will also enable you to form some idea of 

 the great task before us the value and necessity of a minute 

 analysis of all their structural characters, and the many difficulties 



