February, '11] HEADLEE: ENTOMOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS 37 



In all, 6(3 letters were sent out, and 40 replies were received. All 

 who answered regarded the suggestion favorably, and 34 expressed 

 willingness to furnish information for a sample report. Twenty-four 

 had economic entomological work in progress and sent statements of it. 



The replies showed that 25 stations which were prosecuting projects 

 had a total of 101 under wa3^ The numbers in the individual cases 

 ranged from one to twelve, and the average was four. When we 

 consider that the entomologists reporting are distributed from ocean 

 to ocean," and from the Great Lakes to Gulf, it seems perfectly reason- 

 able to consider their work as representative of that which is going 

 forward in the country at large. 



Of the 101 projects 97 are strictly entomological, and of these 92 

 may be classed as research, three as demonstration and two as law 

 enforcement. No doubt both demonstration and law enforcement 

 are low simply because most of the entomologists who responded 

 understood that the suggestion referred to research w^ork only. When 

 the research projects are carefully examined, approximately 63% 

 of them may be characterized as more or less fundamental studies 

 of the life economy of some individual or group of injurious creatures, 

 carried on in the hope of finding new measures for control or improv- 

 ing the ones already in use; 9.7% is concerned with the systematic 

 relationships and life economy of a group, some members of which 

 are injurious; 19.6% deals with the improvement of already recog- 

 nized measures of control and the balance is distri})uted through 

 general study of morphology, parasitism, distribution, and effect of 

 environment. 



It is thus strikingly shown that economic entomologists yet find 

 much to do along lines of life history and methods for control study, 

 and that only a very small minority is definitely searching for the 

 general laws which govern insect life in its various relations. Such 

 projects as that of Mr. H. T. Fernald on the value of insect parasit- 

 ism and that of Mr. Hinds on the factors governing the production 

 and efficiency of certain fumigants, show that this field is being tilled 

 to some extent. 



Of the projects of research more than half deal with subjects that 

 have already received more or less attention, and in a number of 

 cases practically the same project is under consideration at several 

 different stations. This may be taken to mean that a considerable 

 amount of duplication of work is occurring. The reasons for taking 

 up subjects, which have already received or are now receiving much at- 

 tention at the hands of other entomologists, are well shown in the state- 

 ments accompanying the letters which set forth projects under con- 

 sideration. Mr. H. A. Gossard has the following to say on this point: 



