1903 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 117 



Hbst. and H. confusus, Kirby, infest the trunks and limbs, boring under the bark and through 

 the outer wood layers. P. drobi, Peck, infests the young shoots, in which the eggs are placed at 

 intervals, and in the pith of which the grubs burrow, causing the shoots to die and wither. 

 The terminal shoot is frequently affected, thus checking the upward growth of the tree, and 

 causing it to become forked, or to have a crook in the trunk. P. afflnis, Rand., is another 

 common species. 



Besides all the beetles that infest the trunk, br inches and twigs, there are many insects 

 preying upon the foliage. They include the caterpillars of various moths, and the young of 

 several bugs, known as spittle-insects, also beetles, plant-lice, etc. Several sawflies belonging 

 to Lophyrus and Lyda live upon the pine leaves, and sometimes occur in such numbers as to 

 seriously defoliate them. A kind of gall, or swelling of the twigs is formed upon the red pine 

 by the larva of a little snout beetle, Podapion gallicola, Riley, and the cones of both red and 

 white pines are infested by the larvae of a scolytid, Pityophthorus coniperda, Schwartz, which 

 cause them to become aborted and prevent the development of the seeds. 



Mention has been made of only a small number of the insects infesting our valuable pines, 

 and in the briefest way, but even these few notes will indicate tht great number of enemies 

 they possess, and the vast amount of injury which is efiected in the aggregate, by these 

 individually insignificant little foes. 



A TALK ABOUT ENTOMOLOGY. 

 By J. Alston Moffat, London, Ont. 



It has been said by a wag, " That Entomology is the science that gives to insects long 

 names, short lives and a pin through the middle." That bit of humour with its absence of 

 correct information, its jocular misrepresentation, and its implied disparagement of the subject, 

 reflects, fairly well, the condescending attitude assumed towards it, by the great majority of 

 every community, who seem to regard it as the frivolous pastime of a few harmless lunatics, 

 that might be better employed, but who are yet more to be pitied than blamed. Such being 

 the common view of entomology entertained by the multitude, it is not surprising that so few 

 should be found willing to turn their 'attention to it, either as a science, or for its economic 

 bearing on the prosperity of the community, or as a recreation. Indeed, it requires a firm 

 conviction of its value and importance in the world by those engaged in it, or the great 

 pleasure derived from a study of it which it brings to themselves, to make them willing to en- 

 dure the faintly disguised wonder and disdain they are exposed to. Many a youth with a fine 

 appreciation of the beauty of insects has been driven from following out his inclinations by the 

 jibes and jeer.s,of his less favored companions. 



The ever-ready excuse for avoiding entomology as a subject of earnest consideration, is the 

 long names in a language they do not understand. That will be no obstacle in the way of anyone 

 really desirous of understanding the subject. Names are a necessity. The design of names 

 is to distinguish between things that differ. The value of scientific names is that they are all 

 in unchanging language that makes them uniform the world over, regardless of what the 

 vernacular may be. Such a condition is necessary for the systematic arrangement and classifi- 

 cation of the objects named, without which science could not exist. The name of any object 

 in any language must be learned before it can be known and remembered. But once the 

 object and its name are associated together in the mind, all difficulty with the matter vanishes, 

 and it matters comparatively little what the name may be, so long as the object is familiarly 

 known by it. Its meaning, if it has one, will come in due time. What some seem to want to 

 get is a name that will give them the size, form, colour and general appearance of the insect, so 



