20 B. C. EXTOMOLdcJICAL RoCIETY 



ENTOMOLOGISTS, MOIJERN AND ANCIENT 



I'.v li. S. Siii:i;max. 



As the years speed by I beg-in to realize the great changes that have 

 marked the study and pursuit of entomology during the half century 

 covered by my conscious experience. It occurred to me that it might be 

 of interest to some of the younger knights of the net to listen for a few 

 minutes to the rambling thoughts of one of the old school. 



'My first colled ing was done during the seventies in the vicinity oi 

 Belleville, Ontario. The only entomologist of my acquaintance — a dist- 

 ant, awe-inspiring acquaintance — was Professor Bell of Albert College. 

 I saw him twice ; once with net in hand in dignified chase of some elusive 

 hexapod; and again when I carried to him a male, rhinoceros-beetle. This 

 ferocious creature had broken cover from a jungle of dead leaves, and I 

 can remember the powerful thrust of his horned head and doughty legs 

 as lie tried to free himself from my grasp. I took him to the profes- 

 sor, who pi'onounced him a rare capture and a new record for Canada. 

 From that moment the virus df the collector entered my blood and has 

 not yet worked its way out of my system. 



Naturally, on the strength of this capture, I ran largely to coleoptera 

 during the first part of my entomological career. There was good 

 hunting- in those days. The beech and maple forests had not yet fallen 

 beneath the all-consuming axe of the farmer. From the opening- of the 

 first hepaticas to the waning of the golden-rod, the forest aisles were 

 a-hum with insect life. Nor did the snows that lasted from November to 

 Api'il put an end to our entomological pursuits. The half-rotted logs of 

 beech and maple yielded treasures sufficient to keep our interest alive 

 throughout the winter. 



I suppose there is no entomologist who has not succumbed, for a 

 brief period at least, to the manifold charms of Madame Butterfly. And 

 who that has once seen our mountain meadows in all their glory could 

 fail to admire those living, palpitating flowers of the air, flitting from 

 bloom to bloom and making the sunlight vibrant with their beauty? Yes, 

 like the rest of you, I had my fling at the butterflies. 



But there came a time when the needle of my inclination refused to 

 oscillate to these local attractions, however alluring, and settled down to 

 the pole star of my destiny — the diptera ; and there I think it will remain. 

 A recent writer in the Canadian Entomologist, comnienting on the rea- 

 sons which lead one man to work upon dragonflies, another on butterflies, 

 and a third on beetles, states that "he himself was irresistibly drawn to- 

 wards the smallest and most intrinsically uninteresting- of irtsect forms." 

 That explains nine-tenths of our predilections. Yet I am convinced that 

 the true entomologist is broadminded enough to find something of inte- 

 rest in all of nature's forms. Personally, though I "run to diptera," I 



