324 ANNUAL REPORT 



ENTOMOLOGY IN MINNESOTA. 



What has been done in the field of entomology for the State of 

 Minnesota is very little, and can be summed up in a few words. 

 As Minnesota has not yet had a state entomologist, nor any one 

 that has systematically undertaken the study of insects, with 

 the exception of Mr. Whitman's work on the locust, found in the 

 annual reports of the survey, all that has so far been done is due 

 mostly to the efforts of individuals, as found in the entomological 

 reports of this society, atid by writers in the several papers and 

 periodicals. What other entomologists of this country have done 

 that is of special reference to this state, is also very little. The 

 work of entomology, so far undertaken by the geological and 

 natural history survey of the state, can hardly be said to be more 

 than begun in comparison with what remains to be done. Dur 

 ing the short time that I have been in connection with the sur- 

 vey, it has been my privilege to use such spare time as I could 

 find outside the routine office work in connection with the 

 laboratories of the survey and the care of the general museum, 

 to the study of entomology. Making the best possible use of this 

 time, I have so far collected something more than 2,000 species 

 from Hennepin and Eamsey counties, to which locality it has 

 been necessary to restrict my work. These are now in the pos- 

 session of the survey, but to the greater part as unworked 

 material from the lack of time and literature for their proper 

 identification. What scientific work has so far been accom- 

 plished is almost exclusively confined to one family — the ApM- 

 didce, or plant-lice. A preliminary report on this work is found 

 in the fourteenth annual report of the survey, and a more exten- 

 sive report on the same, being a synopsis of the one hundred spe- 

 cies now known from this locality, is to the greater part in man- 

 uscript, ready for the next annual report. 



Competent entomologists now generally believe that the 

 number of insects for the whole world will not fall short of one 

 million species, of which already more than seven hundred thou- 

 sand are in the diiferent collections of the world. Taking this as 

 a basis for the estimation of the number of insects for this state, I 

 cannot put the whole number at less than 20,000, or ten times 

 the number that have already been collected. The work that 

 therefore remains to be done is much, and can probably not be 

 correctly estimated by the professional entomologist himself. 



The law creating the geological and natural history survey of 



