172 Forty-first Report on tee State Museum. 



In closing this sketch, quite imperfect from the brief time that could be devoted to it, 

 I desire, Mr. Chancellor, to express to you and to your Honorable Board the obligations 

 and the gratitude of American entomologists for the encouragement that for so many 

 years you have continued to extend to this department of study. The resumption, a few 

 years ago, of economic studies under State authority and provision, after a long 

 intermission, was largely owing to your instrumentality, and to your recognition of 

 their usefulness in the promotion of the agricultural interests of the commonwealth 

 and of the country. 



[From Entomologica Americana, ii, 1886, pp. 143-I6n.] 



ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE ENTOMO- 

 LOGICAL CLUB OF THE A. A. A. S. 



(Read at the Buffalo Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of 



Science, August 17, 1886.) 



Gentlemen.— I do not know that I can better discharge the duty devolving upon me, 

 of the presentation of an address on this occasion, than in reference to some of the evi- 

 dences of the continued progress made in our department of science, as shown in pub- 

 lications which have appeared since our last meeting. Little that I shall refer to, may 

 be new to most of those present, yet a retrospect of labor satisfactorily performed and 

 successfully prosecuted, is always agreeable to those who have had part therein, while 

 it may prove of interest and of value to those who are not present with us, or active 

 members of our corps, or who may not have access to our current literature. 



Each of the several Orders of insects has been advanced through valuable studies 

 and publications. While in some of the orders, the publications have been but few, yet 

 it is gratifying to know that collections are being made in them and studies prose- 

 cuted, of which we may look for the results ere long. 



Publications in the Seveeal Orders of Insects. 



In the HYMENOPTERA, a Monograpli of the GhrysicUdre has been published by Mr. 

 S. P. Aaron, containing diagnostic descriptions of genera and species. Seventy-four 

 species are described, over one-half of which are new to science: nearly all are con- 

 tained in the collections of the American Entomological Society, of which Mr. Aaron is 

 the curator. A list of the more important writings on the Olirvsididce is appended, and 

 the paper is illustrated in five plates (Transactions of the American Entomological 

 Society, xii, 1885, pp. 209-248). 



Mr. Wm. H. Ashmead has given a Biographical and Synonymical Catalogue of the North 

 American Gynipidce, containing 172 species, together with a list of the trees and plants 

 'jpon which they occur. It appears that these insects are so nearly confined to oaks (of 

 the twenty species of oaks enumerated), that only thirteen species have other food- 

 plants (Id., ib., pp. 291-304). 



From the same author we also have Studies on North American Chalcididie, giving 

 descriptions of twenty-flve new species from Florida and notes upon others (Month. 

 Proc. Am. Ent. Soc, for Dec, 1885, pp. x-xix; Trans. A. E. S., xiii, pp. 125-135). 



Mr. L. O. Howard, of the Entomological Division of the U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture, who for several years past has been engaged in the study of the interesting and 

 serviceable family of the Ghalcididce, is contributing to Entomologica Americana, a 

 generic synopsis of the family, which he has divided into twenty sub-families. The 

 European genera have been combined with our own, as many of them will doubtless 

 be hereafter detected in this country (Ent. Amer., 1, pp. 197-199, 215-219, ii, 33-39, 97-101). 

 A list of the North American species by Mr. Howard, may be found in Bulletin No. 5 of 

 the Division of Entomology, which also embraces the first of a series of papers descrip- 

 tive of the ChalcididaB in the collection of the Department, most of which were previously 

 undescribed. 



