46 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Mr. A. H. Jennings gave an account of his recent extensive 

 trip in the British West Indies in company with Doctor Sambon, 

 of the London School of Tropical Medicine, for the purpose of 

 determining whether endemic centers of pellagra are found where 

 certain biting flies are absent. 



Two HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-THIRD MEETING, JANUARY 4, 1914. 



The following were elected to membership in the Society: 

 B. R. Goad, A. W. Jobbins-Pomeroy, Father De Gryse, R. H. 

 Hutchison, E. A. McGregor, Wm. Schaus, J. K. Strauss, and 

 G. N. Wolcott. 



The retiring President delivered the following address: 



ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 

 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE MICROLEPIDOPTERA. 



BY AUGUST BUSCK. 

 i 



The term Microlepidoptera was originally used by German 

 Lepidopterists about the middle of the last century as a literal 

 translation of the much older, popular name, "Kleinschmetter- 

 linge." It was used as a collective name for the five then recog- 

 nized families of small moths: the Pyralids, the Tineids, the 

 Tortricids, the Pterophorids and the Ornerodids. At that time 

 it was already recognized by leading workers, such as Zeller, 

 Herrich-Schaffer and Stainton, that their division of the Lepi- 

 doptera into Macros and Micros was not a natural one, but this 

 division has been retained in about the original sense even up to 

 the present day in Germany. 



Most modern students have discarded the name Microlepidop- 

 tera as untenable; first, because it is said to be a misnomer; second, 

 because it could not be sharply defined as a natural group, if the 

 original conception should be retained. 



It is true that mere size does not make the distinction. Some 

 large moths are included in the term, while many small Lepi- 

 doptera tali outside the conception. How r ever, these exceptions 

 form a small percentage of the whole and the bulk of the Micro- 

 h pidoptera are truly micros in a literal sense. 



The second objection, that the term is not definable as a natural 

 group, is true if the original conception is strictly adhered to. 



