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been laid before you to-day, and which has resulted in the appointment of Mr, J. 
A. Moffat to the permanent charge of our rooms, library, collections, ete. It will 
be a great advantage, we are sure, in many ways, to have a qualified person to 
look after our possessions, 2nd to be on hand at stated times for the admission of 
members to the rooms, as well as to discharge the other duties appertaining to 
the position to which he has been appointed. 
While here in April last, a meeting of the local members of the society was 
held in order to consider a plan for the formation of sections which should include 
persons who took an interest in any department of Natural Science, and thus 
extend the operations of the society beyond the strict limits of entomology. The 
scheme which we agreed upon at that meeting was submitted to other members 
of the council for their approval, and has been fully ratified to-day. As its 
details have been laid before you already I need not repeat them here. It was 
‘very gratifying to learn that advantage was immediately taken of this arrange- 
ment, and within a few weeks active sections were formed with very satisfactory 
lists of members in the departments of Botany. Ornithology and Oology, Geology, 
and Microscopy. Many new workers have now joined our ranks, among whom 
we are glad to welcome a large contingent of ladies. A great impetus will thus 
be given, we trust, to the study of natural science in all its departments in 
London and the neighbourhood, and we hope that new life and zeal will be 
infused into the older as well as the later members by active co-operation in the 
field, the cabinet and tke study. 
Another matter upon which I may congratulate the society is the acquisition 
of the valuable collections of Coleopteraand other orders of insects, laboriously 
gathered together during many years by Mr. Johnson Pettit, an old and valued 
member of the society. Having ascertained that he was willing to part with 
his collections, I at once entered into correspondence with him, learned the sum 
for which he would be willing to transfer them to the society, and obtained the 
sanction of the members of the council for the purchase. Mr. Pettit was most 
reasonable in his terms when he understood the destination of the collections, and 
allowed us to have them at about half the price he would have asked from a 
private purchaser. Mr. Moffat did good service in the transaction by: visiting 
Grimsby first to report upon the condition, quantity, etc., of the specimens, and 
subsequently by superintending their packing and removal to London. It is 
expected that during the coming winter he will be able in his capacity as curator, 
to disposeof many of the duplicates by sale or exchange for the benefit of the society. 
I may turn now from the consideration of our own concerns to matters 
Entomological affecting the country at large, and following the example of my 
predecessors in their presidential addresses, refer to the work of injurious insects 
in the garden, orchard and farm. The most important insect pest that requires 
the careful attention of our farmers is the well-known Hessian  , 
Fly (Cecidomyia destructor, Say) Fig. 1, which has made its x 
unwelcome appearance in several parts of the Province. The ae fe 
attacks of this insect upon barley, rye, and wheat, are seldom \ 
noticed at first, as the creature is so minute and works out of (7>s>> MO, G; 
Cee 
sight, sucking the sap of the plant from the stem, but con- wr) sae 
x 
TY 
+5 
cealed from observation beneath the sheath of the leaf. Its 
depredations are usually made known by the breaking down 
and falling over of the plant caused by the injury to the / 
stem produced by the insect. There are twoattacks in the ~ i 
year, onein the autumn, when the maggots may be found 
embedded in the crown of the root shoots of fall wheat; the Fig. 1. 
other in the summer, when it lies under the leaf-sheath above the first or second 
