1JM)3 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 25 



past, but we must take every opportunity to write and speak about our work. When we 

 realize that fully ten per cent, of the produce of the farms are destroyed by insects, we h'we 

 some idea of the importance of our mission. We need not only more investigators, but also 

 more propagandists and expounders. 



A great opportunity is open to us in furthering the new educational idea of Nature- 

 Study. It is now fairly well recognized that insect life forms one of the best subjects for 

 Nature-Study. Let us help along the good work, for by so doing we are hastening the time 

 when all will know the facts which we have patiently determined. I am a firm believer in the 

 doctrine that, whenever possible, those forms should be studied, which are of importance 

 economically. 



It is pleasing to learn that the Annual Reports of our Society are appreciated as fully on 

 the other siie of the line as they are at home. Listen to what, the President of the Association 

 of Economic Entomologists said in his Presidential Address read in Washington not one year 

 ago Dr. Felt said: "The reports of the Entomological Society of Ontario, beginning in 

 1870 and extending to date, are a remarkable series of publications, replete with interesting 

 and valuable observations by many writers upon the economic insects of that section. These 

 reports, and those from 1884 to date, of Dr. James Fletcher, entomologist and botanist of the 

 Dominion Experimental Farms, include most of our records concerning the insects of the 

 northern part of America, and are composed largely of original observations and exceedingly 

 practical recommendations and deductions from observed facts." (Proceedings of the Fifteenth 

 Annual meeting of the Association of Economic Entomologists, page 13). 



The three epoch-making works on Economic Entomology in America have been Harris's 

 " Insects Injurious to Veyetation ; " Riley's "Missouri Reports"; and Saunders' "Insects 

 Injurious to Fruits." Of these, Saunders' work is by far the best-thumbed book at the present 

 time. Although first published in 1883 the observations recorded in that book are still 

 remarkably accurate, and but slight revision would be necessary to bring the descriptions well 

 up-to-date. 



In any review of the work done in Entomology mention should be made of the mo&t 

 notable publications of the year. Two very valuable books have appeared, which should be 

 found of great service to the systematic, and indirectly also to the economic entomologist. 

 Early in the year Dr. Harrison G. Dyar, of the United States National Museum, distributed 

 his " List of North American Lepidoptera and Key to the Literature of this Order of Ins cts." 

 It appears as Bulletin No. 52 of the U. S. National Museum. On account of the activity of 

 many workers in Lepidoptera in recent years it had become almost impossible for the ordinary 

 worker, away from the great museums and collections, to keep himself informed of the large 

 number of new species which were being described in the various entomological publi atiuns. 

 This Bulletin of Dr. Dyar's will be welcomed by hundreds of lepidopterists in the United 

 States and Canada. 



The other publication is "A Catalogue of the Coccidae of the World," compiled by Mrs. 

 M. E. Fernald, the talented wife of Professor C. H. Fernald, of Amherst, Massachusetts. In 

 these latter days when a knowledge of Scale insects is of such great importance to the economic 

 entomologist this Catalogue comes as a "a long-felt want," and will be one of the most 

 valuable books of reference on the shelves of the working entomologist. It will now be 

 possible for tlie Coccidologist to complete his library with the necessary literature bearing on 

 the scales with which he has to work. 



I am sure that I voice the feelings of all our members when I say that we are all very 

 grateful for the generosity of the Department of Agriculture at Washington, for its valuable 

 publications, and we admire the activity of that Department along all lines of science related 



