DR. HARRIS'S REPORT. 



To George B. Emerson, Esq. : 



Sir : — In compliance with your request, I now send you the 

 first part of my report on the insects of Massachusetts. 



The benefits which we derive from insects, though not few in 

 number, nor inconsiderable in amount, are, if we except those of the 

 silk-worm, the bee, and the cochenille, not very obvious, and are 

 wholly beyond our influence. On the contrary, the injuries that we 

 suffer from them are becoming yearly more apparent, and are more or 

 less within our control. Before suitable remedies can be discovered, 

 and effectually applied, it is necessary that our insect enemies should 

 be recognized and their habits generally known. The instructions of 

 His Excellency the Governor seemed to point to the economical 

 advantages to be derived from natural history, as the most proper ob- 

 jects of our consideration. These instructions, together with the na- 

 ture and extent of the branch of natural history assigned to me 

 have led me to think that some account of the insects injurious 

 to vegetation in Massachusetts would be acceptable and satisfactory 

 to the governor, and to the people of this Commonwealth. 



I have endeavored to treat the subject in a plain and familiar way, 

 and have introduced no more of the science and language of entomol- 

 ogy, than was absolutely necessary to define and discriminate the dif- 

 ferent insects whose transformations are described. 



This portion of my report is wholly confined to the insects belong- 

 ing to the order coleoptera, which, in the adult state, are commonly 

 called beetles. 



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