DIVISION OF INSECTS—ALDRICH. 371 
from the Atlantic coast, was introduced about four years ago. The 
—eotton-boll weevil came from Mexico about 1892. The European 
pine-shoot moth was introduced about 1918. The Japanese beetle 
was discovered in New Jersey in 1916, and at present an expensive 
campaign of extermination is in progress, financed jointly by the 
State and the Federal Government. 
To prevent other dangerous introductions, the Federal Horticul- 
tural Board was established a few years ago; among other activities, 
it has a system ot inspection of vessels and cargoes at seaports. In- 
sects found therein are sent to the staff at the Museum to determine 
whether they are likely to be of sufficient importance to justify con- 
demnation proceedings or quarantine against shipments. Hence in 
the last analysis the Museum staff decides this vital question. But 
how are they to know? Evidently the efficiency of their work de- 
pends very much upon having access for purposes of comparison to 
a well-classified collection of the insects of the country involved. 
Aside from the very direct economic object just mentioned, the 
study of insect life from a world viewpoint is desirable for another 
reason. ‘The distribution of existing species of animals and plants 
throughout the world has been determined by the evolution of life 
under the conditions prevailing in the past and present. The laws 
of evolution can only be determined by prolonged study of existing 
and extinct forms. These laws must be of great importance to 
humanity; how great only the future can disclose. When Darwin, 
before publishing his Origin of Species, spent more than 20 years in 
patiently collecting the facts which would convince the world of the 
truth of his principle, he did not stop to calculate whether his work 
would have any economic results. He was interested in getting at 
the truth. Yet the most far-reaching benefits to humanity have come 
from the acceptance of the evolution point of view and more are to 
be expected as a fuller understanding of the laws of life is attained. 
Most of what we now know about human heredity has been entirely 
reorganized and given new significance through discoveries made by 
breeding experiments on certain flies (Drosophila). ‘There are other. 
great possibilities in the study of the lower forms of life. And in 
this study national lines have no existence; a world viewpoint is the 
only scientific one. 
Adding to these considerations the further one that insects offer 
innumerable illustrations of exquisite beauty (as shown in slight de- 
gree by the colored plates accompanying this article), it may justly 
be said that there are reasons economic, scientific, and esthetic for 
the building up in the Nation’s capital of a world collection of in- 
sects. This is the primary function of the Division of Insects. 
_?2 While this article was in preparation a specialist in the Museum identified another 
Japanese moth from within the United States for the first time, and it is now under 
further investigation, 
