ENTOMOLOGICAL LABOKS OF DK. FITCH. 323 



who labored long and successfully in the department of Economic Entomology 

 — whose contributions therein gave him an exalted name among entomologists, 

 and to whose enthusiastic, long-continued and valuable labors that branch of 

 natural science is largely indebted for the honorable position it now holds in 

 our country. 



Dr. Asa Fitch died at his residence at Salem, Washington county, N. Y., on 

 the Sth of April 1S79, at the age of 70 years. Ilis entomological studies com- 

 menced about the year 1840, at which time he prescribed for himself such an ad- 

 mirable plan for the direction of his future labors in the field of Entomology, that 

 Ave will be pardoned for quoting it at length. He wrote thus: — 



" I have undertaken a very great work, and have laid for myself a task both 

 hard in the plan and difficult in the execution. To unite in one very limited 

 body the most essential facts of the history of insects , to class them with pre- 

 cision and accuracy in a natural series ; to delineate the chief traits in their 

 physiognomy ; to trace in a laconic and strict manner their distinctive characters, 

 and follow a course which shall correspond with the progress of the science and 

 the eminent men who have contributed to its advancement; to single out the 

 useful and obnoxious species, those which from their manner of living excite 

 our curiosity ; to mark the thousand sources where the authors of the original 

 knowledge may be consulted ; to render to Entomology that amiable simplicity 

 which she has had in the times of Linnaeus, of Geoffrey, and of the first pro- 

 ductions of Fabricius, and yet present her as she is to-day, with all the richness 

 which she has acquired from observation, but without surcharging her with it; 

 to conform her, in one word, to the model vvhicli I have under my eyes, the 

 work of Cuvier — such is the end which I have taken upon myself to attain." 



During the years 1845 to 1851, Dr. Fitch contributed a series of valuable 

 papers on Winter Insects and others, to Emmons' Quarterly Journal of Agricul- 

 ture and Science. In 1850, he prepared a descriptive catalogue of the United 

 States insects of the suborder of Homoptera, which was published the following 

 year in the Fourth Annual Report of the AT. Y. State Cabinet of Natural History. 

 These now scarcely accessible papers richly merit republication. 



In the year 1854, his connection with this Society was commenced, in his 

 selection by the Executive Committee of the Society to examine and report upon 

 the Noxious, Beneficial, and other Insects of the State of New York, under an 

 appropriation by the Legislature for that purpose. His first Report was presented 

 under date of March 14, 1855. Under the continuation of the annual appro- 

 priations for the purpose, subsequent Reports were annually presented with the 

 exception of three intervals of a year each — to the number of fourteen — the 

 last one published in the Transactions of the Society for the year 1870. In 1872, 

 by an act of the Legislature, the office of State Entomologist was abolished — 

 the impaired health of Dr. Fitch not permitting him longer to discharge the 

 duties of the position. 



The series of the Fitch Reports is regarded by entomologists, and others who 

 are prepared to appreciate their merit, as very valuable contributions to science. 

 They are characterized by an untiring zeal, minuteness of observation, fulness 

 of detail, faithfulness of delineation and dignity of expression. They consist 

 largely of the results of original research ; and §o highly were these researches 



