132 



Illinois Natlral History SuR\tv Bulletin 



Vol. 27, Art. 2 



dav trips into the surrounding territor\ . 

 In this way, over the years a remarkably 

 fine collection of insects was built up 

 from almost every part of the state. 1 he 

 establishment of the field laboratory at 

 Havana formed a basis for many seasons 

 of intensive insect collecting in the rich 

 waters of that area and on the extremely 

 interesting sand areas which line the east 

 bank of the Illinois River through sev- 

 eral counties. 



At the present time such restrictions 

 on movement might seem a terrible handi- 

 cap, but one must remember that in those 

 days the land was not so intensively culti- 

 vated as it is at present. Within a very 

 short distance of almost any town, tracts 

 of virgin forest, prairie, marsh, or other 

 undisturbed habitats could be reached 

 with little effort. Many of the old virgin 

 landscapes which were the type localities 

 of Illinois species are now either flooded 

 by artificial lakes, under cultivation, or 

 covered by urban developments. Most of 

 the marshes, which were once common- 

 place, have been drained. Because of the 

 abundance and accessibility of varied 

 habitats, the early collections were both 

 large and diversified. The very nature of 

 the substation headquarters method en- 

 couraged the collection of all species of 

 insects in a given locality, rather than 

 specialization on any one group. Human 

 labor was relatively cheap; hence, pre- 

 parators and collectors could be hired 

 and trained at a nominal cost. 



As a result, the State Laboratory in- 

 sect collections (which constituted also 

 the insect collections servicing the State 

 Entomologist's Office) became the finest 

 which had ever been assembled for any 

 one state, and early in the twentieth 

 century the collections of fishes and cer- 

 tain other groups were equally fine. This 

 faunistic program reached a peak about 

 1910 and continued into the next decade. 



In 1917, when the State Entomol- 

 ogist's Office and the State Laboratory 

 were combined to form the present Illi- 

 nois State Natural History Survey, the 

 reorganization did not effect any changes 

 in the internal structure of the faunistic 

 staff. Immediately afterward, however, 

 the faunistic program began to dwindle. 

 Many of the well-trained personnel ac- 

 cepted positions in universities and other 



scientific centers which were growing 

 rapidly. AVorld War 1 drew away much 

 of the younger help. Richardson concen- 

 trated on ecology. Hart, the work horse 

 of the entomological collections, died in 

 1918, and in 1919 C. P. Alexander was 

 appointed Systematic Entomologist. Al- 

 exander and Malloch worked chiefly on 

 stream surveys. The studies of Alexander 

 resulted in a report on the \ermilion 

 River (Alexander 1925). After the 

 resignations of Malloch. in 1921, and Al- 

 exander, in 1922, there were no faunistic 

 taxonomists left on the Natural History 

 Survey staff. No comprehensive faunistic 

 projects had been in operation for several 

 years, and these resignations left the 

 Survey without even curators. 



Specialization Period, 

 1923 to Present 



The appointment of Theodore H. Pri- 

 son as Systematic Entomologist in 1923 

 marked the beginning of a resurgence in 

 the faunistic activities of the Natural 

 History Survey. Until several years later 

 this move was felt primarily in the in- 

 sects, but eventually it spread to the other 

 animal groups. Prison's first endeavors 

 were to collate the insect collections, but 

 his chief thoughts were aimed at meth- 

 ods for revitalizing the old charge to 

 publish a series of systematic reports 

 covering the entire field of the zoology 

 of Illinois (Illinois General Assembly 

 1885:23). Forbes was as anxious as 

 Prison to see this program begin. By this 

 time several factors had changed the 

 faunistic outlook considerably from that 

 of the beginning of the century. Good 

 roads reached almost every hamlet in the 

 state, and the automobile had supplanted 

 the train and bugg)' as a ready means of 

 travel. The ease of reaching all points of 

 the state made up in large measure for 

 the increasing destruction of large tracts 

 of native habitats and the necessity of 

 seeking primeval collecting spots in re- 

 mote and widely separated localities. 



Taxonomically the picture had changed 

 to an equal extent, at least for insects. 

 In 1900 it was generally considered that 

 except in groups like aphids and ecto- 

 parasites, species could be readily identi- 

 fied by external characters through use 

 of, at most, a hand lens. Variation had 



