6 B.C. ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



there is plenty of literature covering the commonest pests and the 

 remedies for their control, a great many people do not seem to take 

 the trouble to read particulars of the life histories already worked out. 

 They seem to fight shy of printed descriptions in books and pamphlets, 

 as being too dry and technical, and very often they are too sceptical to 

 try the remedies recommended. 



The United States, which, I suppose, leads the world in the amount 

 of money spent on combating insect pests and the publication of litera- 

 ture in connection with insect pests for the use and benefit of agricul- 

 turists, have, I believe, found the same difficulty in impressing the 

 general run of farmers and of inducing them to take advantage of the 

 information given. I have seen it stated somewhere, that the United 

 States Entomological Department is trying to introduce the subject 

 into the newspapers, where probably the pabulum will be taken in as a 

 matter of daily reading. This seems to me to be an excellent plan, and 

 worthy of being adopted in Canada or elsewhere. 



While recognizing the importance of applied entomology, I would 

 not like our Society to lose sight of the systematic side. 



There is a vast amount of work to be done. I think we ought to 

 make an effort to continue the lists given by the late Mr. Harvey in the 

 bulletins of the Society for 1906-07-08, for the orders Coleoptera, 

 Hymenoptera, Diptera and Odonata. It is only in the order Lepidoptera 

 that a serious attempt at a complete list for British Columbia has been 

 made. This list, published in 1906. has been most valuable, but it needs 

 revising and bringing up to date. 



It would be a useful work if we could collect under one cover all 

 the records for our Province scattered through the pages of the various 

 publications. Besides the lists I have mentioned as printed in our former 

 bulletins, there are numerous records in the Canadian Entomologist, 

 Reports of the Entomological Society of Ontario, etc., where they are 

 hidden and unhandy. If we did this, the only difficulty, to my mind, 

 would be to find someone to undertake the revisal of the records in the 

 more obscure orders. 



Considering the very little work that has been done in all the Orders 

 other than Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, it is not creditable for the insect 

 lovers of this Province to allow such a state of things to exist; and I 

 sincerely trust that some of us will look beyond the amassing of a private 

 collection of insects in comparatively popular orders and will take up 

 the study of neglected orders, instead or in addition. It appears to be 

 impracticable at present for the Society to think of possessing collections 

 of its own, but at least we could publish, in handy form, information on 

 the species of insects in the orders I have mentioned, occurring in the 

 district. I earnestly put this matter before our members, and sincerely 

 trust that some of us will take the matter into serious consideration. 



