ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 



PHILADELPHIA, PA., JULY, 1921. 



The Importance of Collecting. 



Elsewhere in the present number of the NEWS we notice the 

 Report of the Proceedings of the Third Entomological Meet- 

 ing held at Pus a (India). To those Proceedings Dr. David 

 Sharp contributed a brief paper entitled "The Importance of 

 Collecting." As few of our readers, 'probably, will see the 

 original and as the paper, coming from such an eminent ento- 

 mologist, is of universal application, we believe we cannot do 

 better for our editorial page than to quote from Dr. Sharp's 

 remarks, as follows : 



Many who have a taste for entomology begin collecting with enthu- 

 siasm, but after a time diminish their efforts or even altogether abandon 

 them. There are numerous reasons that account for this fact, but 



I need allude to but one of them, and that is a belief that 



collections are more advanced and nearer completion than the other 

 branches of entomology are. This I believe to be a great error .... 



The great sociologist Herbert Spencer held that it was amongst the 

 very first duties of a civilized community to make itself thoroughly 

 acquainted with the environment among which it lives. 



Alas, to think how very far we are from this. There is not a single 

 square mile of the earth's surface of which we know thoroughly the 

 fauna and flora. Hence the number of existing forms with which we 

 are totally unacquainted is very great, and I feel that I need not insist 

 on this, for I believe all entomologists will admit it .... 



But to get together a collection of all the insects of a limited region 

 is merely to lay one of the foundation-stones of the science of ento- 

 mology in that region. For we have not only to recognize that the 

 creatures exist, but also to become acquainted with their variation, their 

 distribution and their habits ; to study the anatomy and the development 

 of each species, and (as many at least among us recognize) their evo- 

 lution, i. e., the relation of their generations. And what a huge number 

 of specimens is required for all these purposes, of this huge number 

 of kinds that we believe to be in existence. 



I say then, do not discontinue collecting but go on with it with the 

 greater knowledge and discretion that your experience may suggest. 



I urge this because entomology is the science of many generations. 

 In a hundred years (I might say a thousand with almost equal truth) 



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