1920] Holland: Entomology in North America 11 



The learned editors did not have access to, or accidentally over- 

 looked a number of papers, which in that twelvemonth were 

 published by American students. But they also overlooked the 

 writings of a number of authors in other lands. For purposes of 

 statistical comparison we may accordingly accept their figures 

 as approximately correct. It appears in consequence that only 

 3.3 per cent of the entomological literature of the year 1864 was 

 American in its origin. The "Zoological Record" for 1913 lists 

 2967 papers upon entomology, which had fallen under the eyes 

 of the compilers. Of these 627, or more than 21 per cent, were 

 written by Americans or Canadians. In 1916, owing to the war, 

 the number of contributions to scientific literature fell off very 

 greatly. Only 1821 papers upon entomological themes are listed 

 by the "Zoological Record" for that year, 1146 less than in 

 1913. Of this total 557 were published by citizens of the United 

 States and Canada, more than 30 per cent of the total number of 

 titles. In view of the fact that the "Zoological Record" seldom 

 takes account of any but papers having taxonomic import, and 

 that the vast body of papers dealing with economic questions in 

 the field of entomology are not recorded, save exceptionally, 

 these figures have great significance as showing the wonderful 

 increase which has taken place in entomological activities in 

 North America during recent years. The output of literature in 

 our science has been multiplied ten-fold among us in the past 

 five decades. 



Another evidence of progress is discovered when we examine 

 into the lists of species known to occur in North America, com- 

 paring them with earlier lists, so far as such exist. Taking up 

 the "Catalogue of the Described Lepidoptera of North Amer- 

 ica," prepared by the Rev. John G. Morris and issued by the 

 Smithsonian Institution in May, 1860, we find that he enu- 

 merates for the whole continent from Labrador to Panama, only 

 328 diurnal lepidoptera, or butterflies, of which 225 belong to 

 the region called Boreal America by some, or by others the 

 Nearctic Region. The latest check-list, published by Barnes & 

 McDonough, enumerates 661 species of butterflies as occurring 

 in Boreal America. There have thus been added to the faunal 

 list 436 species, the number given by Morris having been 

 approximately trebled in the past flve decades. There is even a 

 greater advance shown in the case of the Heterocera, or moths. 



