British Columbia Entomological Society 



PROCEEDINGS, 1!)15 



NOMENCLATURE AND CLASSIFICATION. 



(Presiuen'tial Address. ) 



Bv G. O. D.w, F.E.S., Duxc.\x, \'.I.. B.C. 



.SOCIETY such as ours labours under a serious disadvan- 

 tage by reason of its members being comparatively few, 

 and those scattered over a great extent of country. 

 You, in \'ancouver, are fortunate in having a small 

 band of workers within easy reach of each other; in 

 \'ict('ria there are a few entomologists who can meet 

 together if they desire to ; but in the outlying districts 

 members are isolated and far apart, and where men have no fellow- 

 workers there lacks an incentive to devote much time and attention to 

 our particular study. This incentive of friendly rivalry and mutual help 

 is, to my mind, one of the charms of the pursuit of collecting. 



Bearing in mind the drawbacks I have mentioned, I think we, as a 

 Society, ought to be well satisfied with the result we have accomplished 

 so far. During the last year we have published, by the generosity of 

 the Department of Agriculture and the exertions of our Secretary, a very 

 creditable pamphlet comprising most of the papers given at our annual 

 meeting in January last. We also held a special summer meeting at 

 Kelowna 6n August 20th last, an account of which it is hoped will' be 

 included in a later bulletin of our Proceedings. Another drawback which 

 the Society suffers from is the want of a " local habitation." We have at 

 present no room in which to keep our library or to house any collections 

 we might want to form. The supplying of such a desideratum is, I think, 

 an object which should ever be kept in view- by the committee. Our 

 finances, I am glad to say, are in a healthy condition, as has been shown 

 by the Treasurer's statement. 



It is gratifying to know that some of our members, notably Dr. 

 Seymour Hadwen and Mr. E. H. r)lackmore, have been doing good 

 practical work, as evidenced Ijy the papers presented to-day. Person- 

 ally, I have not been able to add much to our general knowledge, but 

 I am contributing two life-histories which will be printed with the 

 Proceedings if there is space available. The descriptions may prove 

 useful for reference when in printed form. 



It is generally understood that the syslcinafic side of entomology 

 should mainly uccup}- the attention of our January meeting; and it lias 



