378 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 1 4 



Having specialized under Doctor Howard's direction in the study of the 

 Chalcidoidea, he described certain new species of this group, as well 

 as certain species of thrips. 



Dissatisfied with the inaccurate data concerning the amount of injury 

 caused by different species, he drew attention to the necessity of an exact 

 investigation of this subject. He made one reflect seriously upon 

 different phenomena which had previously been admitted as unnecessa- 

 ry of further verification. 



In his wTitings, and also at the congresses of entomologists in Russia, 

 he demanded that an exact investigation be made of the full life histories 

 of different species, and accurate studies as well of their injurious influence 

 upon plants. He demanded the establishment of certain laws of phe- 

 nomena, following the example of similar work in the United States, 

 since he was always a promoter of American methods in Russian in- 

 vestigations. 



With his great desire for knowledge, he went in 1913 to Sweden and 

 England in search of detailed information as to what had been done with 

 Oscinis frit L., in which he was especially interested at that time. 



The world war found him at the highest point of his investigations of 

 Chaetocnenia aridula Gyll., an enemy of wheat. Always a determined 

 enemy of German imperialism and militarism, he entered the Russian 

 army as a volunteer at the same period as did the writer. He started as 

 a simple soldier, took part in several serious engagements and received 

 the highest reward for braver}', the Cross of St. George of the first class. 



During his short furloughs from the active army, Kurdiumoff always 

 visited the Poltava Station; in fact, I saw him there for the last time in 

 November, 1915, when I was wounded and had been sent there to 

 recuperate. I had been making some observations upon Di ptosis tritici 

 Kirby, and he identified the parasites I had reared. 



His interest in entomology was overwhelming, and he spent hours 

 at the binocular while in uniform. During the later years of the war, 

 when he had become a lieutenant of artillery, he was engaged in defending 

 the banks of the Dvina river, near Kreisburg. 



The news of the revolution in Februarj^ 1917, reached him on this 

 front, and he greeted the event with enthusiasm. He could not endure, 

 however, the breaking up of the army which followed the revolution, and 

 among the wire entanglements and the guns deserted by his soldiers in 

 front of the German fortifications, he committed suicide in the autumn 

 of 1917, leaving a series of letters written to his friends. 



