164 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



If fewer new species have been described during the year, we may find 

 encouragement in the explanation that we are approaching the period, if 

 not already reached, when a new species may not be claimed as the 

 reward of every entomological excursion. And indeed, there does not 

 seem to be urgent need of descriptions of forms so very far in advance 

 of some degree of knowledge of transformations, habits and relations to 

 the vegetable world. 



An evidence of increasing interest is to be found in the frequent 

 inquiries made for instructions in collecting, apparatus for preparation, and 

 books for study. While the first two requests can be promptly met, not 

 so with the last. We are unable to place in the hands of the student the 

 volumes which he requires for naming his collections. This cannot but 

 be the occasion of discouragement to the beginner, and often the cause 

 of diversion of earnest labor to other departments of natural history. A 

 great need of our science at the present is, monographs of the families 

 prepared by specialists, in which descriptions of all the species shall be 

 given (not simply referred to), and accompanied by such synoptical tables 

 and illustrations as will enable the student readily to ascertain the names 

 of any species which has been described. 



At our last meeting I stated to you that the names of 281 persons are 

 recorded in the last edition of the Naturalists' Directory who are making 

 Entomology their study in North America, and that it was probable that 

 a full list would extend the number to at least 350. It now appears that 

 half the truth was not told. A list kept by the Secretary of the Cam- 

 bridge Entomological Club, published in Psyche, vol. ii.,p. 9 of Advertiser, 

 accompanying the numbers for Sept. -Dec, 1878, contained at the close 

 of last year the names of 762 Entomologists in the United States 

 and Dominion of Canada. I am informed by the Secretary that 

 the list at the present time, without having been subjected to a critical 

 revision, contains 835 names. 



As a record of the current literature of any science is virtually a record 

 of the progress of that science, may I ask your attention to a brief notice 

 of some of the publications of the year following our St. Louis meeting. 



A work that might serve as a model in the illustration of insects in 

 their relations to the plants upon which they feed or frequent, is one of the 

 unique series by Mr. Glover of Manuscript Notes from My yournat, 

 entitled, " Cotton, and the principal Insects frequenting or injuring the 



