REPORT OF THE SOCIETY 13 



tera, the Coleoptera, the Diptera and the Hymenoptera; and within these 

 orders those families in which metamorphosis is completest are the large and 

 dominant families. 



The one persistent trend through orders and families alike has been 

 toward one type of larva: simple and worm-like, legless and lacking all other 

 appendages, with even the head reduced but with the abdomen enlarged and 

 full of fat, capable at last of only a sheltered existence, and requiring, for the 

 final making over, a pupal period of complete quiescence. 



This phenomenon interests us all as biologists; but it is to the food-pro- 

 ducing capacity of these larvae that I am particularly inviting your attention 

 at this hour. Among insect larvae are to be found the best agents for quick 

 turnover of common plant stuffs and of organic wastes into fresh food for cani- 

 vorous animals. 



The young of many of our most desirable food species of both birds and 

 fishes seem to require for their best development a diet of insects. On such a 

 diet they have been evolved. To it they are fitted. On it they thrive. Our 

 success in rearing them has been demonstrated to depend on furnishing them 

 with such a diet; but hitherto this has been done in a desultory way and with 

 great uncertainty as to continuity of supply. 



The requirements are three — the same as for raising any other animals 

 whatsoever : 



1. Suitable food in adequate supply. 



2. Suitable shelter including defence against enemies. 



3. Maintenance of conditions suitable for growth and reproduction. 

 The only impediment is ignorance, and lack of scientific method. The 



cure for this is research ; patient, sustained research, and reflection on the ways 

 of nature, and on how we may better adapt them to our own needs. By this 

 means we have made all the betterments of our civilization; and in my judg- 

 ment the thoroughgoing economic exploration of the world we live in has only 

 just begun. 



APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY IN RUSSIA 



By Prof. W, Lochhead, Macdonald College. 



While in London from January to April, 1924, the writer was fortunate 

 in meeting Prof. B. F. Uvarov of the British Museum of Natural History, 

 who is one of the most prominent of the younger Russian entomologists. He 

 was good enough to give the writer much valuable information regarding ento- 

 mology in Russia, and through his kindness several abstracts and translations 

 of papers and addresses of an historical nature were secured which the writer 

 has used quite freely. — ) 



