(te) 
These facts are well known, and much has been written 
about them. I mention them now because they have a slight 
bearing on what I wish to say later on. 
Many years ago the President’s Address generally gave a 
summary of the works published on entomological subjects 
during the year. This is no longer possible nor desirable. 
Lately the Address has usually taken the form of a treatise on 
some entomological topic. 
I propose saying a few words on the subject of accurate 
nomenclature. 
The fact that insects are small and have thus escaped 
destruction is probably one reason why we have such com- 
plete series of closely allied species with all the connecting 
links in gradation still before our eyes. 
The number of described species increases at a rapid rate ; 
insects which our fathers would have uvhesitatingly regarded 
as belonging to one species are now considered quite distinct. 
Slight differences which were formerly thought to be of no 
importance are now known to have specific value. A hair or 
two more or less on the thorax of a beetle or a fly may be of 
generic importance, or at least specific. 
The descriptions of species written fifty years ago are often 
almost useless in the present day. I remember one Fellow of 
this Society saying that when a species has been properly 
described, the specimen from which the description was made 
might be destroyed. His own descriptions I must say are 
very perfect, but even he cannot say how a species differs 
from one he has never seen, and specific characters are 
frequently found in the most unexpected places, 
How are we then to secure accuracy in the names of our 
insects? And unless our specimens are correctly named, how 
are we to understand one another? ‘Take two or three cases 
of incorrect determination which have been very misleading. 
Meigen briefly characterized a genus of Diptera under the 
name of Corethra, and he quotes Tipula culiciformis of De 
Geer as the type; it is evident, however, from his subsequent 
work that the insect he had before him at the time was not 
