30 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON AN ECOLOGICAL 
SURVEY 
To the Illinois Academy of Science : 
The most comprehensive and important work of the past 
year in the field of the ecology of the State is that on the 
prairie remnants of Illinois, by Homer C. Sampson; the work 
of the State Laboratory of Natural History on the northeast- 
ern lakes of Illinois and on the Fox River draining them; and 
that of the State Entomologist’s office on certain families of 
insects. 
Dr. Frank C. Gates, of Carthage College, a recent accession 
to our committee, is making preliminary lists of the plants and 
birds of Hancock county, working out their associations and 
successions as a basis for future studies. 
Dr. Arthur G. Vestal, who has also returned to Illinois dur- 
ing the past year, has begun studies of the historic relations 
between prairie and forest vegetation in the Charleston region; 
and Mr. T. L. Hankinson, of Charleston, has been making col- 
lections of amphibians and reptiles in that region, while stu- 
dents under his direction have been doing some good work on 
the spiders, galls, and certain groups of insects of the same 
area. He has increased his local collections, which now run 
to more than 14,000 numbers, and some of his students have 
been helping to organize the data of these collections since 
September, 1915. 
Facilities for ecological work have been notably improved 
by the completion and equipment of a new vivarium at the 
University of Illinois, in which Dr. V. E. Shelford, of our 
committee, is working upon both aquatic and entomological 
problems. During the past year he has completed a series of 
experiments on the effect of wastes from gas-works upon 
fishes, and has shown that essentially all compounds found in 
these wastes are poisonous, and that they can not be eliminated 
from contaminated water by any possible treatment. Their 
introduction into streams should consequently be prohibited. 
He also made a series of preliminary experiments on the ef- 
fects of weather upon insects, and concludes that moisture 
and light, as well as temperature, have much to do with the 
seasonal abundance of certain insect pests. 
