12 



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 labour 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 accom- 

 panied 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 Cambridge 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 D jminion of Canada. I am in- 

 formed 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 Journal, entitled, " Cotton, and the i^rincipal Insects 

 frequenting or injuring the plant." In its twenty-two quarto plates, engraved on copper, 

 is shown the cotton plant in every stage of development from the seed to the mature 

 plant, and in its various conditions as resulting from insect attack or from disease. In 

 association with these figures, twenty-four insects frequenting the plant are represented. 

 Several of the species are illustrated in an agreeable prodigality, giving enlarged views of 

 the egg, the larva at different stages of growth, the pupa, the cocoon, the perfect insect 

 at rest and in flight, its under surface, enlargements of parts, and the more marked 

 varieties of the larva and the imago. Although not so stated, it is believed that the 

 edition of these Notes was no larger than tlie others of the series, and consequently, 

 that only about filiy societies and individuals have been the fortunate recipients of 

 a copy. 



The Natural History of the Agricultural Ant oj Texas is a volume of 208 pages and 

 24 plates, by H. C. McCook, treating at length of the habits, structure and architecture 

 of this interesting insect. The histological details have been worked out from prepara- 

 tions made by Prof. J. G. Hunt. 



A volume, upon which Baron Osten Sacken has been for a long time engaged, has 

 recently been completed and published by the Smithsonian Institution. The Catalogue 

 of the Diptera of North America prepared by this author and published in 1858 was 

 simply a compilation of published names, not claiming synonymic accuracy. It con- 

 tained 1,800 species, but many of the number were too imj)erfectly described for identifi- 

 cation. The new Catalogue is of such merit as to deserve more than a passing mention. 

 It is fully up to, and in itself materially advances, our knowledge of the Diptera of our 

 country. Its author modestly regards it as only critical in part — so far as the families 

 have been worked out into monographs, and as still remaining a mere list of reference 

 to earlier writers, in those families which have not been studied, or in which the existing 

 collections are to a great extent still unnamed, as in the CuUcidce, Ckironomidce, Cenopidce, 

 the group of Muscidcc calypterce, and the section Asilina. Its critical character may be 

 seen from the statement, that of the 102 species of Tabanus enumerated in the old Cata- 

 logue, only 36 have been adopted in this. 



An admirable feature of this Catalogue is that a large proportion of the species 

 which it records — over 2,000 carefully described and authoritatively labelled species — 

 are contained in the Collections of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, 

 fwhere every possible care is given to them, and where they are accessible to the student 

 or comparison and study. Most of these are types of Loew and Osten Sacken, or their 

 determinations. 



