BULLEN 
OF THE 
BROOKLYN ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
VoL. XIV FEBRUARY, 1919 No. 
Nope || 
RELATION OF THE SYSTEMATIST TO THE ECONOMIC 
WORKER. 
By Epmunp H. Gisson, Washington, D. C. 
If in the furtherance of that branch of science called entomol- 
ogy the work of either the systematist or of the economist was 
agreed to be inferior to the other in importance there would be 
no object for this short treatise upon the relation of the one to 
the other. During the past five years I have heard frequently 
the mistaken statement made by economic workers that the 
systematist feels that the field men are his tools to supply ma- 
terial and to aid in the necessary biological studies, because he 
holds that the classification or reclassification of particular groups 
is the major part of entomology. On the other hand, especially 
among inexperienced economic workers, the opinion is often ex- 
pressed that the identification of specimens is the only excuse 
for having systematists. 
Conditions of to-day in every branch of activity prove that the 
successful prosecution of any endeavor is directly dependent upon 
all factors that enter into the problem or propaganda. The great 
war illustrates that no unit of force can act independently. Espe- 
cially is this a truth in entomology. The economic workers or 
the combatant force in the unending fight upon insect pests must 
look to the strictly biological and systematic workers for the 
essentials that they alone can supply. 
At this time, however, it must be admitted that the results of 
the economic workers are of greater importance to the world than 
those of the purely systematic, although it is at no time to be 
admitted that the work of either is of greater import to the 
