president's addkess. 27 



of Scotland), frequently contributes papers and reports upon 

 all kinds of insect-pests of importance in Scotland. 



With the establishment of the Imperial Department of 

 Agriculture for the West Indies, under the directorship of 

 Sir Daniel Morris, in 1898, an entomologist was appointed to 

 study the different insect-pests of the West Indies. Mr. H. 

 Maxwell Lefroy took up the work in the following year, and 

 issued a list of the scale-insects before he resigned, to take a 

 position under the Indian Government. His place was filled 

 by Mr. H. A. Ballon, who is still the authority on insect- 

 pests of the West Indies, where I met him, in Barbadoes, at 

 the Imperial Conference of Agriculture, in 1908. 



Last year, the First International Congress of Entomolo- 

 gists met at Brussels, and held a seven days' session, dealing 

 with both systematic and economic entomological questions. 

 This gathering comprised representatives from all parts of 

 the world, and shows how the study of entomology is advanc- 

 ing. The first report, just to hand, contains over 500 pages, 

 and many illustrations, with forty papers contributed in Eng- 

 lish, French, German, Spanish, and Italian. In August of 

 this year, a second meeting will be held at Oxford University. 



In June, 1909, Lord Crewe, then Secretary of State for the 

 Colonies, appointed the Entomological Research Committee 

 (Tropical Africa). It consists of twenty of the leading British 

 zoologists, doctors, and entomologists, who have been con- 

 nected with the study of the insect-plagues of tropical coun- 

 tries. It is under the chairmanship of Lord Cromer. The 

 original idea was to deal with the insects, and particularly, 

 suspected disease-carrying insects, of the colonies, British 

 possessions, and protectorates in Tropical Africa ; and collec- 

 tors were equipped, and sent out to obtain specimens, and 

 co-operate with the officers resident in these possessions. It 

 was afterwards found that the scope of the work could be 

 greatly enlarged if operations were extended beyond Africa. 

 An opportunity was taken advantage of by Lord Cromer, 

 when the leading men from all the dominions of the British 



