CEYLON NATUKAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 285 



SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR MEMBERS OF THE 

 CEYLON NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY.* 



By E. Ernest Green, F.E.8., F.Z.S., 



Government Entomologist. 



/^\UR Natural History Society, which was inaugurated just eight 

 -^ months ago, now numbers 157 members. 



This is our third meeting, and we have abeady Hstened to several 

 interestmg Papers on various subjects. We look forward to many 

 other meetings ; but the object at which such a Society as ours 

 should aim is not merely to meet at stated intervals and listen 

 to the reading of Papers by a small number of our members. The 

 actual meetmgs are the least important part of the programme. 

 The Ufe of the Society depends upon the endeavours of each 

 individual member to add (if only a few grains) to the general 

 stock of knowledge. The source of such knowledge is to be looked 

 for, not at the meetings — though fresh ideas and inspiration may 

 possibly be gathered on those occasions — but in the intelligent 

 observation of Nature day by day. 



Let no one, even the veriest beginner, be alarmed or discouraged 

 by this dictum, or imagine that no valuable discoveries can be made 

 without special training ; nor must it be supposed that httle remams 

 to be discovered. Far from such being the case, endless problems, 

 in every branch of Natural Historj^ in Ceylon, await solution. 



Speaking as an entomologist, I can confidently aflfii-m that little 

 is known about the life -histories and habits of our Ceylon insects. 

 As soon as we get outside one or two conspicuous famiHes — such as 

 the butterflies and moths — it is probable that not one -tenth of the 

 existing number of species has even been recognized, much less 

 determined or classified, and our ignorance of their habits is dis- 

 couragmgly profound. Even amongst the butterflies, which have 

 been collected assiduously ever since the British occupation of the 

 Island, new species are still occasionally brought to light, and of 

 many well-known species the early stages are yet unknown. The 

 blank spots in our knowledge of the moths are still more numerous ; 

 and when we come to the other groups of insects, we seem to have 

 scarcely touched the fringe of the subject. 



* Read before the Ceylon Natural History Society on Wednesday, October 

 9, 1912, 



