ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



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PHILADELPHIA, PA., JANUARY, 1913. 



As the New Year opens and the winter season gives some 

 respite from field work, and perhaps some leisure to think over 

 plans for the future, some of our readers may find helpful 

 suggestions in the following sentences, even though now nearly 

 two years old, from Professor Gerould : 



A rich field for conquest awaits any one who chooses to leave the 

 beaten tracks of entomology and scout among the fastnesses of ex- 

 perimental evolution. When one considers the remarkable results 

 that have been accomplished single-handed by such observers as Stand- 

 fuss, Tower, Doncaster and T. H. Morgan, not to mention many 

 others, the possibilities achieved in this field if the huge army of ob- 

 servers already interested in insects should attack in an organized 

 way the problems of variation, the inheritance of acquired characters, 

 mutation and natural selection, polymorphism and sex, mimicry and 

 protective resemblance, can hardly be overestimated. Desultory ob- 

 servations of the strolling naturalist will not help much in this con- 

 quest, but long-continued breeding of carefully selected strains under 

 well-controlled conditions cannot fail to win valuable results. 



Entomological societies and journals of the future, in order to con- 

 tribute effectively to the real advancement of science should organize 

 co-operative plans of research along these lines and enlist the services 

 of the countless observers whose random notes now fill their ar- 

 chives. (Science, February 24, 1911, page 310). 



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