INTRODUCTION 



in my personal life, but he seems sure that "there is a story 

 there," and I am inclined to agree with him. 



Some people would read such a story to know just what kind 

 of odd creature an entomologist usually is. Many reminiscent 

 books have been written recently by scientific men, including 

 naturalists. Two of these are quite charming and seem to have 

 been widely read — those by David Fairchild and Frank M. Chap- 

 man, the one a botanist and the other a famous student of birds. 

 No entomologist has ever told in book form of his life experi- 

 ences, yet surely there is much romance and even drama in the 

 lives of many of these men. 



The trouble is that most of them have been men who have 

 lived and worked in such a way that the world has not known 

 of them. Until recently their pursuits were thought to be trivial. 

 Insects were deemed small and insignificant — not worth the 

 attention of a man in his right mind. Until quite recently many 

 men were ashamed to let their friends know that they were 

 studying insects and making collections. 



Almost all of this is changed, as we shall see. But an entomol- 

 ogist is still a queer fellow in the eyes of many. And it must be 

 confessed that many entomologists are queer fellows in the eyes 

 of everyday conventional people. I remember that once many 

 years ago a group of us were standing at luncheon time under 

 the trees behind the building of the old Department of Agri- 

 culture at Washington when a tall, rather extraordinary-looking 

 individual with pompadour hair and a strange two-pointed beard 

 and not too careful dress (although perfecdy neat) came out of 

 an adjoining building. 



"Who is that?" asked one of the bystanders. 



"Oh, that's just one of Howard's entomological freaks," replied 

 one of the group (he was a botanist, by the way). 



Thus he spoke carelessly and laughingly of August Busck, 



[vi] 



