106 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 2 



Jamaica, figuring it with a single ocellus, giving it the specific 

 name jamaicensis. Now in rearing a great number of adults from the 

 e^g an occasional individual of this latter form will appear, and all 

 gradations between it and the true geminatus have been repeatedly 

 observed, and may be reared from the same lot of eggs. The species 

 has never been since found in Jamaica, and no one now believes for 

 a moment that it ever occurred there, Drury's specimen probably 

 having been mislabeled. Neither description nor figure represents the 

 species but an occasionally occurring variation, and the name is not 

 only a serious misnomer but misleading as well as false. Yet, on 

 account of priority of publication, if the laws of priority are fol- 

 lowed, this must be considered as the species. This is one of the 

 things that must either be put out of the way or allowed to stand as 

 perpetual contradiction and a discredit to the science of entomology. 

 In the Fifth Report of the IT. S. Entomological Commission, pp. 

 601-602, is a footnote by the late Dr. C. V. Riley, which reads as 

 follows : 



"The law of priority becomes a nuisance and a positive injury to 

 the science when pushed to the unnecessary extreme of attempting 

 to solve inexplicable riddles." 



I have in the foregoing pointed out some of your frailties, for the 

 man w^ho makes no mistakes is yet to be born, and indicated some of 

 the problems that the older entomologists "\vill probably bequeath you 

 for solution. Besides these, during the years to come, many biolog- 

 ical problems reaching far beyond the realms of entomologj" will be 

 solved by closer, broader, and more careful studies of insects and in- 

 sect development. Never in the history of American entomology has 

 there been so much to do, and a greater demand for the right kind 

 of men to do it. 



Those among you will succeed who adhere closest to nature, who 

 throw all of the weight of every faculty that you can command into 

 your work, with an eye to bringing out the truth for truth's sake, 

 and not for whatever temporary glory or notoriety there may be in 

 it, remembering always that it is not the bulk that you throw into the 

 hopper but what remains and is not rejected through the siftings of 

 years that will stand to your credit long after you have yourselves 

 passed away. 



(During the reading of the above paper, President Forbes entered 

 and assumed the chair.) 



President Forbes : Discussion of this paper is now in order. 



