1920] Metcalf: Proceedings of St. Louis Meeting 131 



ENTOMOLOGY IN THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL 



MUSEUM 



The day has long passed when American scientific activities can be 

 restricted to a narrow field. Whether we regard the economic needs or 

 the intellectual development, we find ourselves compelled to consider 

 the whole range of science, limited only by our resources and the powers 

 of the human mind. In the field of Entomology this involves, among 

 other things, access to adequate collections of insects, including not 

 only those found in North America, but the species of the whole world. 

 The leading European countries have long appreciated such needs, and 

 have built up collections to which Americans have to make pilgrimages 

 when engaged in comprehensive studies of insect groups. There is no 

 reason why we should not possess facilities for work at least equal to 

 those of any other country. We have the greatest material resources of 

 any nation at the present time, and certainly are not lacking in the 

 ability to carry on the work. 



The species of insects are far more numerous than those of any other 

 group of animals; in fact the described forms exceed those of all other 

 groups combined. Very many of them are of supreme importance and 

 interest to man, as destroyers of our crops, carriers of the germs of 

 disease, enemies of other injurious insects, or sources of some of our 

 most important economic products. All know the value of the silkworm 

 and the honey bee, but few realize the services of the best of parasitic 

 insects, which keep down the enemies of our crops, and without which 

 agriculture would be impossible. All are aware that numerous insects 

 are injurious to plants, but comparatively few know that many of the 

 most harmful of these have been introduced from abroad. The greatest 

 danger to our crops, or even to our health, may arise from insects acci- 

 dentally brought from foreign countries through the operations of 

 commerce. The San Jose scale, dangerous enemy of many fruits, came 

 from Asia; the cottony cushion scale, which once threatened the extinc- 

 tion of the orange industry in California, came from Australia. The 

 gypsy moth, which has cost this country hundreds of thousands of 

 dollars to fight, is European. The cotton boll weevil, even more to be 

 dreaded, invaded the United States from Mexico and Central America. 

 For urgent practical reasons, therefore, as well as in order to complete 

 and organize our knowledge, we need to know the insects of all countries, 

 and to have them represented in at least one American collection. 



This obvious requirement of a great collection representing the 

 insects of all lands, cannot be met without Congressional aid. The 

 National Museum, under present conditions, or better, limitations, 

 cannot possibly adopt an adequate policy of entomological develop- 

 ment. The two prime obstacles are lack of sufficient curators and lack 

 of space. The present force of curators, even with the aid afforded by 

 the members of the Bureau of Entomology, cannot arrange and classify 

 the collections already on hand, incomplete as these are. Some of the 

 men work overtime and on holidays, while help is sometimes obtained 

 from those not officially connected with the Museum. But all these 



