342 Fiftieth Report on the State Museum 



{Aletia argillacea), annual losses to the cotton-crop of the Southern States 

 are sustained, it has been calculated, of thirty millions of dollars. 



From careful computations based upon the census returns of agri- 

 cultural products of the United States, the startling aggregate is presented 

 of an annual loss in these products of three hundred millions of dollars. 



A large proportion of this loss — this onerous tax upon industry — 

 need not be sustained — need not be exacted. It is preventable through 

 the use of means which have been and are being indicated by those who^ 

 have undertaken the study of methods of prevention and remedy. In 

 consideration of the progress that has been made in the knowledge of 

 insects, the discovery of insecticides and [of mechanical appliances for 

 their application to field crops, as well as to orchards and gardens, I dare 

 to assert that the insect does not exist, the injuries from which may not 

 be materially lessened whenever its habits and life-history have become 

 fully known. 



The need of the study^of these insect depredations, the importance of 

 it, and the absolute necessity thereof, will be more evident when we con- 

 sider, next 



V. The Extent of the Study. 



A comparative idea of the magnitude of the insect world, as contrasted 

 with the entire animal kingdom, has already been given you. It may 

 enable you to form a better idea of its extent, to state, that judging from 

 the number of species now named and described — about 330,000 (we 

 know and possess in our collections thousands of others awaiting study) ^ 

 and at the rate that new species have been added to our lists within 

 the last half-century — it will not be an extravagant estimate, if for the 

 present, we place the probable number of species existing in the world 

 at one million. Although this figure is largely in excess of those made 

 by other entomologists, I believe it to be a moderate one, in considera- 

 tion of the limited study as yet given to some of the orders, and the still 

 unexplored regions of the globe — entire continents in which scientific 

 exploration has barely commenced. Its realization would but necessitate 

 less tJian the trebling of the at present known species, with all future time 

 available for the work ; while during the years that have followed my 

 boyhood, the number of described species has been quintupled. 



From a scientific point of view, each species as discovered demands- 

 description that will give it positive recognition, and assignment to its 

 proper place m classified lists. For economic purposes, but a small pro- 

 portion williequire the elaborate study that shall tell us all that we need 

 to know of them. But what patience, what persistence, what an amount 

 of study — extending it may be over several years — is often needed for 

 the acquisition of a single life-history. Each of the four stages under 



