EXPLANATORY TO THE TECHNICAL 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 con- 
stantly being done by different members of the force. The condition of our knowl- 
edge of North American insects at the present time is such that many forms which 
from time to time spring into prominence as destructive species, or as connected 
with destructive 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 themselyes sources of great 
annoyance to all workers, and when these isolated descriptions are published else- 
where than in scientific journals or the proceedings of scientific societies, the annoy- 
ance 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 regular divisional work. They are doing this work 
as a necessary supplement to the purely economic output of the division, and to 
facilitate the investigations of the entomologists of the State Agricultural Experi- 
ment Stations. It becomes important that the results of their labors should be 
published. promptly, and as all available sources of publication in this country, 
such as the Proceedings of the United States National Museum and the Trans- 
actions of the American Entomological 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. 
1078 Peal 3 & 
