420 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 15 



Mr. L. 0. Howard, Entomologist, Bureau of Entomology, United 

 States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, was present 

 and responded to a request by Mr. Lovett to give an informal talk at 

 this time. 



INFORMAL TALK GIVEN BY MR. L. O. HOWARD, THURSDAY 

 MORNING, JUNE 22, 1922. 



Mr. Chairman, you are very courteous to call on me. I am totally 

 unprepared to say anything except to express my pleasure at being 

 present. I have long wanted to be present at one of the Western 

 meetings but it so happened that I have been unable to attend before. 



The economic entomologist, wherever he may be, must be tremendous- 

 ly gratified by the great benefit which our branch of the science in the 

 world at large has been . We are getting better contact with other fields of 

 science and they realize that we are working in a scientific way. Eco- 

 nomic entomology is thoroughly scientific and it is not a branch of 

 Zoology. I was in communication with a man who said that he was 

 more of a scientific man than all of those fellows at the museum. I do 

 not mean to under-estimate the work of the men of the musetim. I 

 am glad that we are going to convene with their meeting. I believe 

 that all entomology is economic entomology, however, and before we 

 get through with this thing we are going to know everything about every 

 single insect. There is considerable very fine work being done by 

 the men in the laboratories. I wish, however, that the laboratories 

 would devote more time to a group that has more practical importance 

 than the individual insect. All these men are doing work that is of 

 economic value. I would like to say for the encouragement of the 

 museum men — I see Mr. Van Duzee over there, one of the museum 

 taxonomists, Mr. Hagan, said that he was afraid that the economic men 

 were getting ahead of che Taxonomists. I believe that they should work 

 along with the economic men and that their work should be encouraged in 

 every way. A new weevil entering sweet potato fields in Mississippi put in 

 an appearance. Now all the economic men knew what this weevil was 

 but they did not know whether they could expect to cultivate a crop 

 or not until we had sent it to the National Museum and had it ex- 

 amined. To our regret we found that it was a characteristic weevil 

 from the region of Chili and Peru. We were able to find oat more about 

 it after we got its name and it has been doing considerable work in 

 Australia. If we did not have these taxonomic experiences, we would 

 not have had the benefit of the work in Australia. I will again state, 

 however, that I consider all entomologists economic entomologists. 



