n6 [April, 



ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



Published monthly (except July and August), in charge of the joint 

 publication committees of the Entomological Section of the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences, of Philadelphia, and the American Entomological 

 Society. It will contain not less than 300 pages per annum. It will main- 

 tain no free list whatever, but will leave no measure untried to make it a 

 necessity to every student of insect life, so that its very moderate annual 

 subscription may be considered well spent. 



ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION $1.00, IN ADVANCE. 



Outside of the United States and Canada $1.2O. 



jg@? All remittances should be addressed to E. T. Cresson, Treasurer, 

 P. O. Box 248, Philadelphia, Pa.; all other communications to the Editors 

 of ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS, Academy of Natural Sciences, Logan Square, 

 Philadelphia, Pa. 



PHILADELPHIA, PA., APRIL, 1895. 



A LETTER TO THE "NEWS." 



I am, I suppose, a tryo in entomology, yet I am earnestly and constantly 

 seeking help and advice from books and periodicals on entomology. I 

 spend twelve weeks each year teaching some hundred and fifty pupils 

 about insects, their structure and habits. This is done not from books, 

 but from insects themselves. I collect each Summer about twenty-four 

 species of insects, in quantities of from 200 to a 1000 of each species. 

 You can easily understand that I am likely to get many insects of other 

 species. I know at sight about 150 species of beetles and quite a 

 number, say fifty to a hundred species of Hymenoptera and Diptera. I 

 have a collection of about 1000 species of insects. Yet, notwithstanding 

 all this, I find the reading of the NEWS uninteresting. It tells me about 

 so many species of insects of which I have no knowledge, nor the slightest 

 conception what they are, nor means of finding out ; while it tells me so 

 little of those with which I do have a speaking acquaintance, or how to 

 increase my knowledge of insects in general. 



I am not even suggesting that the NEWS should change its plan of work 

 to benefit me, or those like me. I know it is vastly more creditable, even 

 if less profitable, to publish a paper the back numbers of which, filed 

 away unread in entomological libraries, will be overhauled and quoted as 

 authority twenty or fifty years from now. But that does not help me, nor 

 those like me. I want help, suggestions, inspiration NOW. I have as yet 

 found no periodical of that kind. The entomological journals for ama- 

 teurs that I have already seen so far, are enough to make a man weep. 

 But I know that there is a field for an entomological journal less technical 

 than the NEWS, but still scientific and respectable. 



