6 



it is quite probable tluit sonie miuiito insects or parts of larger insects 

 were thus photographed. It is doubtful, however, if living insects 

 were photographed more tlian fifteen or twenty years ago, for there 

 was little incentive for such work before tluit. l^ut the commercial 

 development in the earl^^ eighties of cheap mechanical engraving 

 processes for reproducing from photograplis or negatives opened a 

 new and unlimited field for the camera. The esta1)lishment and 

 equipment of tlie llatcli agricultural experiment stations tliroughout 

 the country in 1888 offered greater facilities than ever before for Avork 

 with insects, and this gave another great impetus and incentive to 

 insect photograph3^ 



A few half-tone reproductions from photographs relating to insect 

 work appeared in the publications of the experiment stations for 1888 

 and 1889; tliey represented tlie Cornell insectary, fumigation tents, 

 photomicrographs of the hole made by the ovipositor of Trypeta [Eha- 

 goletis] 2)omoneJJa in apple skin, and ears of corn eaten by HeliofMs 

 arrniger [H. ohscura Fab.]. These early half tones were poor, and it 

 was not until 1802 that many fairly good insect photographs were thus 

 reproduced in the exi3eriment station literature. 



The Cornell experiment station began to use the Ilatcli fund in 

 1888, and under the direction of Prof. J. H. Comstock the first ])uild- 

 ing of its kind, an insectary, was built and well equipped with pho- 

 tographic and other apparatus. The camera was soon in use, and 

 Professor Comstock was jirobably one of the first to i^hotograph liv- 

 ing insects in this country. His first object was to print from nega- 

 tives onto blocks for Mrs. Comstock to engrave, or to get prints from 

 which to make drawings. Some of this work appeared in 1890 in a 

 Cornell bulletin, but no half-tone engravings of insects or their work 

 were used at Cornell until 1893. A good half-tone of nematode root 

 galls appeared in an Alabama bulletin in 1889, and since that date the 

 mycologists have well illustrated with half-tones the gross features 

 of such diseases as potato scab, the smuts, rusts, etc. 



The first half-tone engraving of a living insect that I have found 

 in our entomological literature was printed in Entomological News 

 for January, 1891. It is a ver^^ good picture of the "hickory horned- 

 devil "caterpillar, taken in August, 1890, by Mr. J. F. Sachse. JMuch 

 progress has been made since then by the makers of half-tone blocks 

 and by the printers in using them. In 1892 Prof. L. IT. Baile^^ had a 

 photograijh of the interior of a greenhouse full of i)lants returned to 

 him by a i^late maker, wlio stated that he could not make a good half 

 tone, as there was too much detail. Ten years later the same photo- 

 grapli was again sent to be reproduced, and came out beaut if ull3^ 



A GENERAL PROTEST. 



To-day the camera has become the constant companion of many 

 economic entomologists, and no phase of an insect's life, habits, or 



