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ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO 



Insert a pin through the body of the killed insect just behind the head , stick the 

 pin into the linoleum so that the insect's body will be carried down to the wings through 

 the opening between the boards. Carefully, so as not to brush the " dust " of! the 

 wings expand them on the boards and over or across them pin narrow stripB of paper 

 (Fig. 16) to keep them in proper position until they dry. Two or three days will 

 suffice for the drying. Beetles should be pinned through the right wing-cover (Fig. 17). 



In the box we have spoken of nicely arrange the preserved material — eggs, larvae 



Fig. 16. Spreading board for 

 butterflies and moths (after Riley). 



Fig. 17. Method of pinning 

 and labelling beetles (after Riley). 



dried or in vials of alcohol, parasites if any, pupse, moths, or butterflies, etc. Photo- 

 graphic sketches of three such preparations were published in last year's report opposite 

 p. 32. Keep living insects "out, first by having boxes which close and stay tight, second 

 by keeping in them a camphor ball or crystals of napthaline. Above all take good care 

 of your accurately dated notes of observations. One such box as thia the results of the 

 teacher's and pupils' own efforts and investigations is likely to prove of greater educa- 

 tional and practical value than memorizing a whole text-book on entomology even 

 though such study were supplemented by catching at random and mounting hundreds 

 of beetles, moths and butterflies. 



One of the most serious defects in our public school system of education is the lack 

 of exercises that train children to observe and to reason from their own observations. 

 Such kind of training cannot be obtained from text-books nor tested by examinations, 

 and hence will the more slowly gain its proper place. But I hope that the influential 

 efforts of this society, now that it has taken the subject up, will continue to stimulate 

 and encourage nature study in our schools, at least along that line in which it is par- 

 ticularly interested which the quotation from Mr. Sheldon shows to be so appropriate 

 and which is no less practical than disciplinary. 



Mr. Fylee, in moving a vote of thanks to the President, expressed the pleasure 

 experienced by all who were present in listening to the address; he found it moat inter- 

 esting and full of valuable lessons to all. 



Dr. Fletcher seconded the motion and said that he thought all had enjoyed very much 

 the presentation of the affairs of the year that Mr. Dearness had given. For himself he 

 considered the remarks in the address singularly pertinent. No branch of science meant 

 more in actual dollars to the people of the country than that of entomology. Of all the 

 crops that we grow, whether in the field, the orchard or the garden, at least one-tenth was 

 lost owing to the depredations of insects, and yet to-day fewer persons applied themselves 

 to this study than to almost any other branch of science. The strange thing is that so 

 little is done to instruct children regarding their insect friends and foes. The plan pro- 

 posed by the President in his address — the study of practical entomology in the rural 

 schools, is an admirable one, and yet nothing has hitherto been done in Ontario in this 

 respect. In Manitoba the rural schools are much in advance of ours ; there the children 

 are taught some practical entomology and botany, and are rapidly coming to know the 

 insectB and weeds that are giving trouble, and to recognize common plants and other 



