PROCEEDING.S, 1917 7 



With the valued assistance of our energetic Assistant Secretary. 

 Mr. Williams Hugh, I instituted a series of monthly meetings, beginning 

 with the New Year. We held one in January and another in February, 

 both of which were attended by about nine of our local members, and 

 a great deal of interest was shown at both meetings in the subjects 

 under discussion. It is our intention to hold these meetings the second 

 week in each month throughout the year, and to make them as interest- 

 ing and instructive as possible, especially to the younger members of 

 our Society. 



I have not taken any set subject for my address, but am contenting 

 myself with making a few general remarks on different subjects that I 

 wish to speak of, and this seems to me the most convenient opportunity 

 of expressing myself to you. I would like to say here that these remarks 

 are not made in any spirit of criticism but are made solely with the idea 

 of improving the collections of the systematic entomologists of British 

 Columbia. 



During the past four years, as most all of you know, I have been 

 studying the Geometridae of British Columbia. In the course of my 

 studies I have examined about fourteen collections, both on the Island 

 and the Mainland. Many of these collections had neither date nor 

 locality labels ; some of the insects were on short pins, others low set 

 on long pins ; again others were badly set and badly arranged, and in a 

 few instances the presence of mites and dermestes was very evident. 



Noticing all these things made me feel that if I were permitted to 

 draw the attention of our systematic collectors to these several defects, 

 a more uniform standard could be attained in the display of our collec- 

 tions. This may seem to many of you a trivial matter, but I can assure 

 you from the remarks of Mr. Wolley Dod and other eminent entomol- 

 ogists, that it is a matter of the utmost importance, both to the collector 

 himself and more especially to others who may either want to exchange 

 material, or for comparison to settle some disputed point. 



I was very sorry to see so many collections without date labels of 

 any kind, as the value of labelling at the time of capture cannot be too 

 strongly impressed upon all collectors. It has been truly said that at 

 times a label without an insect is of more value than an insect without 

 a label. A small printed label not only adds to the appearance of a 

 collection but in many cases is the only means of a ready identification 

 of specimens. To illustrate what I mean, I will give an example as 

 regards the value of a date label. W^e have on Vancouver Island two 

 geometers that are almost exactly alike, Hydriomena irata and Hydrio- 

 mena californiata, so close in fact that if there were no labels on them 

 only an expert could tell which was which, but when properly dated can 

 be easily separated, as irata occurs in April while californiata does not 

 emerge until June. 



