iQio] Insects and Eniomolgoists i 



All domesticated animals and birds suffer from insect attack 

 and parasites. Lice, bots, horse and stable flies, fleas and the 

 like, and many animal diseases are carried by insects and their 

 allies the ticks. Here also the Diptera contribute the bulk of the 

 dangerous and troublesome species, and to our horses, cattle and 

 sheep the elimination of all flies would be as great a boon as to 

 man himself. 



Insects also li\'e with man as messmates, preying on his stored 

 products or acting as scavengers in his dwelling, and all the main 

 orders are represented in this heading. They are further injur- 

 ious by feeding upon the crops grown by him, the annual losses 

 figuring up to enormous sums — estimated at $1,500,000,000 for 

 the United States alone. All parts of the plants above and 

 below ground, outside and inside are infested, and all kinds of 

 plants are attacked. 



Many insects have been introduced from foreign countries 

 and some have profoundly influenced our agricultural methods. 

 The San Jose Scale has re\"olutionized fruit culture in the eastern 

 United States and, incidentally, has made more positions for 

 entomologists and stimulated more interest in entomological 

 work, than all other species combined: — in which respects it is 

 not an unmitigated pest. 



There is, however, another side to this shield and there are 

 also insects directly and indirectly beneficial. Bee products are 

 of great value, and silk products are enormously so. Some insects 

 are used in medicine, a \-ery few for food, and a few also in the 

 arts. 



The chief value to man, of insects, is as pollenizers to plants, 

 and many plants are entirely dependent upon them for their 

 continued existence. Pollenizers are found among the Coleoptera, 

 Lepidoptera, Diptera, and, pre-eminently, the Hymenoptera. 



Portraits were vShown, and brief notes were given of Say, 

 Melsheimer, Haldeman, LeConte, Florn, Abbot, Morris^ Grote, 

 W. H. and Henry Edwards, Hulst, Strecker, Clemens, Hagen, 

 Osten-Sacken, Loew, Ashmead, Packard, Scudder, Harris, Glover, 

 Fitch, Walsh, LeBaron, Riley, Lintner and Fletcher. A few col- 

 lectors and founders of early societies were also referred to, Ak- 

 hurst and Schaupp of Brookh'n, the latter one of the founders of 

 the Brooklyn Entomological Society, and Feldman, of Philadel- 

 phia, ancestor of three generations of Coleopterists — the Wenzels 

 — after whom the Feldman Social was named. Pictures of field 



