The Report of Benjamin Dane Walsh as Acting State 

 Entomologist of Illinois was made under peculiar circum- 

 stances, described on pages r> to 8 of this reprint. At the 26th 

 session of the State Legislature, an act was passed (approved 

 March 25, 1869) "for the relief of the State Entomologist." 

 which had the virtual effect to legalize his acts as a state 

 officer during the period of nearly two years between his 

 nomination by the Governor and his confirmation by the 

 Senate; and his report, made to the State Horticultural 

 Society and not to the (Jovernor, thus became actually, 

 although not nominally, the first report of the office. It 

 was published in 1868, in the Proceedings of the State 

 Horticultural Society (Volume I.) for 1867, and a separate 

 pamphlet edition was printed by the Prairie Farmer Com- 

 pany of Chicago. In both these forms it has long been out 

 of print and has become very scarce. 1 am pleased to have 

 the oj^portunity to issue a second edition of this useful and 

 interesting document, to the number of 1,000 copies, and 

 I do not doubt that its republication at state expense is 

 amply warranted by the intrinsic value of its contents, and 

 by its importance as the first of a long series of reports of 

 the official entomologists of this state. 



The original edition has l)een closely followed in this 

 reprint, and no changes whatever have been made except in 

 the correction of a few obvious typographical eri'ors. 



S. A. FORBES. 

 State Laboratory of Natural History, 

 September 80, 1903. 



