18 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Among other losses by death especial mention should be made of Prof. Kellicott, of 

 the Ohio State University, but whom I had not the privilege of knowing. 



But to turn to less mournful subjects : If I were asked to state what I consider the 

 chief characteristic of entomologists, I think I should say their patience. Surely a man 

 deficient in this virtue would not continue long in the pursuit of this science. Are we 

 ever thoroughly discouraged 1 Does not hope spring ever fresh in our hearts 1 We 

 may secure the eggs of a species whose life history we are anxious to enravel, and 

 after carrying the larvae nearly through, and just when success seems about to reward 

 our patient care, a mysterious disease may sweep the whole brood away, and yet we only 

 say, " I must try it again ; better luck next time." 



"When I think of the myriads of species whose life histories are waiting to be 

 unravelled, of the comparatively few who are engaged in this work, of the few life histories 

 which we can work out in a single season, and of the very few seasons we have in which 

 to do this work, I am inclined to thiiik that the way we go at this task is almost 

 sublime. 



But this reflection leads me to what is perhaps a delicate question, and that is — 

 Would it not be better if some of our friends, when working out these life histories, 

 would give less time to debating as to more generalized and more specialized forms? 



Surely it will not be contended that a mere specialized form is necessarily higher 

 than a more generalized one 1 There is evolution downwards aa well as upwards, 

 specialization towards degradation as well as towards advancement. 



I confess that when I find able entomologists laying such great stress upon such 

 minutiae as one vein being slightly more appressed to another vein in one genus than in 

 some other genus, or the presence or absence of some minute veinlet, when it is admitted 

 that even individuals of the same species show variations in these matters, which fact has 

 to be accounted for on the convenient doctrine of reversion, or when it is proposed to 

 classify families as higher or lower chiefly upon the single characteristic of having or not 

 having the fore pair of legs aborted, my share of the patience to which I have alluded 

 tends to wear thin. 



While not a champion of the New Woman, I certainly believe in the doctrine of the 

 equality of the sexes in the case of the Lycaenidae, and protest strongly against any 

 attempt on the part of the gentleman Lycaenid to lord it over his spouse on account of 

 his aborted fore legs. The bear has a plantigrade foot, and the domestic fowl is a biped, 

 but it is hardly probable that these facts would lead any systematist to place these 

 animals next to man in the order of classification. We shall never have a natural, and 

 therefore scientific and satisfactory classification of these creatures until we know them in 

 all their stages, when our classification will be based upon the sum of their characteristics. 



There is one word which I would like to say to our professional friends, and that is, 

 that I think they might show a little more consideration for the amateurs in the way of 

 giving the reasons for any necessary changes of name. Amateurs have neither the time 

 nor the opportunity to keep up, in detail with the tremendous output of entomological 

 literature, and when one takes up a number of a joui'nal containing an instalment of a 

 "revision" of some group, and finds that some well-known name has entirely dis- 

 appeared, and after a protracted hunt finds, let me say, such an old acquaintance as 

 Euchcetes Collaris, Eitch, disguised under the name of Cycnia Tenera, Hiibner, and this 

 without a word of explanation of this wonderful discovery, one can hardly be blamed for 

 exclaiming " A plague on all your revisions." 



In entomology, as no doubt in other branches of natural science, some men are 

 lumpers and others are splitters. To the latter I would say that the describing of new 

 species should certainly not be done on the chance of their proving distinct, and to the 

 former that once a form has been described as a new species it should not be lumped 

 except upon over whel caning proof. As an example of most unwarrantable lumping may 

 be instanced the case of Euchcetes Collaris, Fitch, which on the authority of some wise. 



