64 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 4 



the work should be common to all, while other parts should be radi- 

 cally different, in order to best meet the needs of the different stu- 

 dents. This means individual training, and I cannot too strongl}' urge 

 that the best results come from a careful study of the plans of each 

 student, and the shaping of quite a part of his work with direct refer- 

 ence to those plans. 



For those not intending to make entomology a profession, but who 

 wish to be able to recognize, or if this is impossible, to determine 

 insects which they may find attacking the crops they raise, the course 

 should aim to teach the student how to obtain the answers to the 

 questions which will so often arise in his Avork — "What is this pest, 

 and how can I control it?" External anatomy, therefore, so far as 

 this is necessary for the identification of insects is essential, and the 

 writer has found that the most satisfactory way of teaching this is by 

 the careful study of the external structure of a rather typical insect of 

 each of the more important economic groups, followed by the identifi- 

 cation, at least as far as families, of quite a large number of insects. 

 The course in external anatomy should assure the familiarity of the 

 student with those parts used in analj'tical keys, while the determina- 

 tive work to follow, will call his attention to variations in these parts, 

 besides giving him practice in the use of the keys themselves. 



It seems to the wTiter that too httle attention has been paid to the 

 question of insecticides, in connection with this work. He gives, and 

 is heartily in favor of quite an extensive course of lectures, together 

 with as much laboratory work as is possible, on the different insecti- 

 cides, their chemical composition, preparation, methods of detecting 

 adulterations, etc., and this course could be extended with profit. 



Beyond this point, however, he believes that the work of the stu- 

 dents should be, to a large extent, individual, and that the man going 

 into fruit raising for example, should make a careful study of the 

 insects most seriously injuring the fruits he expects to raise, both in 

 the field, in the laboratory, in the collections available, and in the 

 books. Of course, within the ordinary time hmits of such a course, 

 it is impossible to cover all the insects of any crop in this way, but the 

 more important ones can be considered, and the man will thus be 

 enabled to recognize the most important pests or their work, when he 

 may find them, and take active measures at once for their suppression. 



In this way, the student who receives the training outlined above, 

 will recognize many of his insect enemies without study, but if this is 

 not the case, he knows what steps to take, in order to ascertain the 

 foe which is attacking his crops, and having determined this, is in a 

 position, as the result of his studies on insecticides and other measures 

 of control, to utihze the best methods for its destruction. 



