history. It has called to its aid some of the best intellect of the 

 country. Its literature has become extensive and assumed a high 

 rank. Our State governments, in response to demands made upon 

 them, are appointing State Entomologists. Our General Gov- 

 ernment is making liberal appropriations for entomological work 

 in the Department of Agriculture at Washington, and also for 

 sustaining a special United States Entomological Commission, 

 now in the third year of its operations, charged with the investi- 

 gation of a few of our more injurious insects. 



" The study of insects assumes an importance in this country 

 far greater than in any other part of the world. Nowhere else 

 does mother earth yield in such variety and in such abundance 

 her agricultural products ; after supplying to repletion our own 

 people, the excess is distributed to every quarter of the globe. 

 Few, surprisingly few, of these varied products are native to our 

 soil. Nearly all of our fruits, grasses, cereals and vegetables, and 

 perhaps three-fourths of our weeds are of foreign importation — 

 mainly from Europe. With their introduction, very many of the 

 insects that preyed upon them were also introduced, or have been 

 subsequently brought hither. But unfortunately for us, the para- 

 sites which preyed upon them and kept them under control, have, 

 for the most part, been left behind. As the result, the imported 

 pests, in their new home, find their favorite food-plants spread out 

 in luxuriant growth over broad acres, where they may ply their 

 destructive work without hinderance or molestation, until some 

 native parasites acquire the habit of preying upon them. 



"The grand scale upon which our crops are grown as no 

 where else in the world — demanding for their gathering the inven- 

 tion of special mechanical contrivances, and that horse-power 

 should be replaced by steam — has also as its attendant inevitable 

 evil, an enormous increase of insect depredations. This may be 

 illustrated by a reference to our apple-tree insects. * * * * 

 * * " In like manner, any and every crop cultivated on a large 

 scale offers strong invitation to insect attack, and wonderfully 

 stimulates insect multiplication." 



ON TWO NP:W forms of THE GENUS PARNASSIUS. 



By Henry Edwards. 

 (Read before the New York Entomol. Club, at the first meeting in December, 1880.) 



In my paper on Parnassius ^^Proc. Gal. Acad. Sc. 1878), I re- 

 ferred to a singular example sent to me from the Upper Yukon 

 river, Alaska, which I then hesitated to' describe, but which, by 

 the advice of many entomologists, I now characterise as follows : 



Parnassius Thor. Hy. Edw. n. sp. 



Head, anterior portion of thorax above, and the whole of the 



