ENTOMOLOGICAL SOOIKIY OF ONTARIO. 



It is to be hoped that an increasing number of county and township fair boards will 

 follow the example of the Western in offering encouragement to the true study of insects 

 in life. Collections of insects as commonly seen at county fairs have little claim to the 

 honor of scientific exhibits. Their proper place is with wax flowers, rosettes of sea- weed, 

 and other such pretty bric-a-brac. There is little scientific value in a collection of insects 

 arranged at hap-hazard without notes and dates, be they ever so nicely spread. Economic 

 interest in nine cases out of ten centres in the 1° "' '^m of insects. Exhibits to be 

 worthy of the name of science should attempt to ' ases of the life cycle, or at 



least something more than the mere capturing c x .serving of a pretty object. The 

 best prizes in the class ought v >e offered for exuibits of complete representations of 

 insects in their various stages. *» *7e should add to our extensive collections here such 

 aeries of the more important economic insects, taking as a pattern this one of the gypsy 

 moth* which shows so well the egg, larvae, pupa and imago of that insect. 



Du ing the year I received several inquiries from teachers near and remote asking 

 suggestions in the matter of directing children in the practical study of insect life. Antici- 

 pating that in the future others may desire the information, I avail myself of the oppor- 

 tunity afforded by the printing and circulation of this report, to gratify the desire more 

 fully and satisfactorily than I could do by letter. 



At the outset the purpose of the lessons should be clearly defined in the teacher's 

 mind. The aim should not be to fill the learner's memory with knowledge about insects 

 but to train the young eye to see and the mind to reason about, to connect and relate the 

 phenomena observed and to make these observations and reasonings the occasion for 

 practice in correct expression by voice, pen and pencil. 



The study, if natural, will be attractive to children. Flowers and insects are the 

 classes of objects, next to mud pies, that they take most delight in. Now I recall 

 Wordsworth's lines : — 



" Oh ! pleasant, pleasant were the days. 



The time, when, in our childish plays, 



My sister Emmeline and I. 



Together chased the butterfly ! 



A very hunter did 1 rush 



Upon the prey : — with leaps and springs 



1 followed on from brake to brush 



While she, God love her ! feared to brush 



The dust from off its! wings." 



In a recent biographical sketch of that eminent training-school principal, Edward 

 Austin Sheldon, of Oswego, by his talented daughter, there occurs this passage : — " This 

 latter book (Harris's ' Insects Injurious to Vegetation,') was quite a classic with my father 

 and me. We would sit in an unfurnished room of our unfinished house with the light 

 burning so as to attract insects in at the open windows. We would^soon have a delight- 

 ful collection of moths, beetles and flies which we caught, killed, and then tried to 

 determine by comparison with his book — an operation in which my father found me an 

 enthusiastic rather than a valuable assistant, This keen and special interest in insects 

 came about from the fact that my father's own work in the young training school was 

 for some time zoology, and he saw that with the masses of children, insects gave one of 

 the easiest and most inviting entrances to the whole domain of organic life. This idea, 

 however, cost him much persecution and ridicule from those who could not understand 

 the connection between grasshoppers and a well-educated child, not knowing grasshoppers 

 very well themselves." 



Each teacher will as skilfully as he can, introduce the study. Plans to arouse an 

 easily obtained interest will readily suggest themselves. f The main points may be 



* The speaker here exhibited a case received from the State Entomologist Femald illustrating all the 

 stages in the development of this destructive insect. 



t Since writing the above I have received from Prof. Roberts, director of the College of Agriculture, 

 Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., a series of seven "Teacher's Leaflets on Nature Study." entitled 

 respectively: "How a squash plant gets out of the seed," How a candle burns, Four apple twigs, A 

 children's garden, Some tent-makers, What is nature-study ? Hints on making collections of Insects. Some 

 of the illustrations used in this paper are borrowed from leaflets Nos. 5 and 7. I can highly commend the 

 aeries. The printer, W. V. Humphrey, Geneva. N. Y. is permitted to sell them to non-residents of the 

 State at 5c. each or in large quantities at lc. each. J. P. 



