EXPLANATORY TO THE NEW SERIES. 
While the work of the Division of Entomology is entirely carried on 
with the practical end in view, a certain amount of work of a technical 
character is constantly being done by different members of the force. 
The condition of our knowledge of North American insects at the 
present time is such that many forms which from time to time spring 
mto prominence as destructive species, or as connected with destruc- 
tive species, either as parasites or predatory enemies, are found to be 
new to science. They must be classified, described, and given names 
before they can be intelligently considered in economic publications. 
The practice which has prevailed to a limited extent of naming and 
describing new species in practical bulletins and reports is one which 
has met with much disfavor among systematic workers. Isolated 
descriptions of new species are in themselves sources of great annoy- 
ance to all workers, and when these isolated descriptions are published 
elsewhere than in scientific journals or the proceedings of scientific 
societies the annoyance becomes intensified. The force of the Division 
of Entomology comprises several specialists who are doing descriptive 
work, and largely upon material accumulated in the course of the reg- 
ular divisional work. They are doing this work as a necessary supple- 
ment to the purely economic output of the Division, and to facilitate 
the investigations of the entomologists of the State Agricultural 
Experiment Stations. It becomes important that the results of their 
labors should be published promptly, and as al! available sources of 
publication in this country, such as the Proceedings of the United 
States National Museum and the Transactions of the American Ento- 
mological Society, are chronically overcrowded with manuscripts, and 
are not published with any degree of promptitude, it is necessary that 
they should be issued by this Department. 
Orr, 
4 
