May 19, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



529 



welcomes all who listen in. It is a great 

 pleasure in this first radio entomological lec- 

 ture to be specifically authorized to convey to 

 Madison entomologists and others the greetings 

 and best wishes of Dr. Howard, chief of the 

 Federal Bureau of Entomology, Dr. Gibson, 

 Dominion entomologist of Canada, and the 

 presidents of the older entomological societies 

 on the eastern coast, namely, Cambridge, New 

 York, Brooklyn, Washington and Philadel- 

 phia, the last founded in 1859, the oldest of its 

 kind in the country and with its founder, Ezra 

 T. Cresson, still active. The pioneer and vet- 

 eran entomologist of Canada, Dr. Bethune, has 

 authorized the extension of his congratulations 

 and best wishes to present day workers. We 

 would also express our appreciation to the 

 General Electric Company of Schenectady for 

 placing this lecture upon its program. 



There are great possibilities in broadcasting 

 and, for the purpose of determining its present 

 value, the speaker requests reports by mail 

 giving the number of entomologists at each 

 unit receiving this lecture. Crop and market 

 reports are broadcasted. Why not warnings of 

 insect depredations? Regional programs and 

 lectures by visiting specialists are very desir- 

 able present day possibilities. 



This has been called the age of man. Is it 

 not really the age of insects? They occur 

 almost everywhere. They actuallj^ imperil our 

 existence by attacking crops, destroying for- 

 ests, annoying and worrying domestic animals, 

 and are well known carriers of deadly infec- 

 tions, such as typhoid fever, yellow fever, 

 cholera and sleeping sickness. Were it not for 

 the beneficent activities of birds and many 

 other natural agents, we would be overwhelmed 

 by the numerous pests contemptuously desig- 

 nated as bugs. There are in New York State 

 some 20,000 different, species of insects and 

 perhaps 100 entomologists engaged in collect- 

 ing and studying them. There are presumably 

 more than 100,000 species in the United States 

 with over 1,000 entomologists and in the 

 entire world a million to ten million different 

 species of insects (a large proportion un- 

 known) and a relatively much smaller group 

 engaged in their stvidy. Each of these insects 

 occurs in four distinct stages, namely, the egg. 



tlie maggot or caterpillar, the pupa or chrysa- 

 lis and the adult or perfect insect, conse- 

 quently the entomologists of the world are en- 

 gaged in the stupendous task of classifying and 

 learning the habits of four to forty million 

 different forms. Accurate differentiation must 

 precede investigation of life histories, other- 

 wise deplorable confusion is almost inevitable. 

 There is no group in the animal, the vegetable 

 or the inorganic kingdoms which presents so 

 many diversities as the exceedingly numerous 

 and varied forms known as insects. It usually 

 takes several years and frequently much longer 

 to work out a satisfactory life story of even 

 one insect, consequently a limitless field is 

 before us. We extend to radio "bugs" and 

 others interested an invitation to join in ex- 

 ploring and making known this vast realm of 

 the undiscovered. 



Man is inclined to congratulate himself upon 

 his wonderful progress, forgetting that in many 

 cases he has yet to reach the degree of perfec- 

 tion seen in numerous animals. The recently 

 developed monoplane, for example, does not 

 differ greatly in its general proportions from 

 those of our hawk moths, and the biplane is 

 almost a duplicate of a pair of dragon flies, 

 one flying above the other; both models that 

 have been favorites in the insect world for 

 thousands of years. Dare any man say that 

 our latest advancement in applied sciende, 

 namely, the radio telephone, is more than a 

 relatively crude modification of methods which 

 have been used by insects for countless ages? 



Radio "bugs" are rightfully proud of their 

 aerials or antennaj, yet they have developed 

 relatively few types and apparently have not 

 learned, except in a very general way, of the 

 million or more different kinds of insect anten- 

 nas, each admirably adapted to a specific pur- 

 pose and some wonderfully suggestive of aerial 

 communication. 



Ages ago the gall midges, minute flies which 

 produce galls on many plants, learned the ad- 

 vantages of elevated or elongated antenna; and 

 we find here species which have solved the 

 problem by the development of greatly elon- 

 gated antennal segments, thus increasing very 

 materially the length of the entire organ and 

 others which have attained the same end 



