( lxxxiii. ) 





THE PEESIDENT'S ADDEESS. 



Ladies and Gentlemen, 



The Eeport presented by the Council will have 

 informed you of the prosperous state of the Society, and 

 of the record it has during the past year established in the 

 number of its Fellows. When one considers the vast number 

 of species of insects, as compared with that of other classes 

 of animals, their immense antiquity, the perfection they have 

 reached in their physical equipment and in their instincts, 

 their exhaustless variety of form and function, and the scope 

 which, by their metamorphoses and in other ways, they 

 afford for the solution of problems in which all biologists 

 are interested, one can but expect that the Society will 

 become more and more important, and that its members will 

 continue to increase in number and, as far as indications 

 appear, certainly with no deterioration in quality. The 

 interest which draws its members together is one that is 

 concerned with every part of the world. It is by a collation 

 of the species and varieties which all the different parts of 

 the world have to present that the science will be advanced, 

 and from this point of view it is most satisfactory to note 

 how largely the Society is constituted of Fellows resident 

 abroad. In looking through the list of Fellows at the 

 beginning of the year 1905, I found that these mounted up 

 to more than one-fifth of the whole membership. Fifty -nine 

 are resident in the British colonies and dependencies, and 

 forty-six in foreign countries, of whom twelve are honorary 

 members. 



It is of interest to observe that about half the papers 



