1899] ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 29 



muller who had special facilities for the work in having all Mr. Elwardb's types under 

 his care in the American Museum of Natural History, and who has been working upon 

 the group for some years. He has now secured the consent of the Directors of the 

 Museum to the issue of the monograph and it is expected to appear next year. Dr. 

 Packard has bfen delayed in regard to the publication of the second volume of his mono- 

 graph of the Bombycine Moths and it will not appear during the coming year. He is 

 waiting to fill up some gaps in the life histories and to obtain good coloured drawings of 

 the larvae of Platysamia G-loveri, P. Columbia and other forms. The part will include 

 the Oeratocampidse and Saturniidee.and any collector who can obtain the eggs or larvae of P. 

 Columbia would be rendering a service to science by contributing them to aid in the 

 completion of this work. Though not published during the present year attention should 

 be directed to Dr. Packard's Text Book of Entomology, a most important treatise on the 

 anatomy, physiology, embryology, and metamorphoses of insects which has been accorded 

 a very flattering reception not only by the leading entomologists of this continent but 

 also by those of the old world. 



Among other publications may be mentioned the pamphlet on the Hessian Fly in the 

 United States prepared by Herbert Osborn and issued as Bulletin No. 16. New Series, 

 of the Division of Entomology at Washington. 



Mr. Wm, H. Edwards although retired from active entomological work has not 

 wholly given up his interest in this subject, and recently wrote me that he had urged 

 Mrs. Peart to fill up some of the gaps in his album of drawings of preparatory stages of 

 the butterflies, and said that he wanted to see these drawings deposited in some public 

 institution where they would be available for reference, and it is much to be hoped that this 

 disposition of them will be made. The formation of an Entomological Society in the Can- 

 adian North-West Territories is an event of which we should all be glad. It is much to be 

 hopfd that the interest which the energetic President has awakened will continue and 

 increase and bear good fruit, and that the Society may become affiliated with us as a 

 branch, and this leads me to the suggestion that it would be an excellent thing if there 

 were more co-operation among the branches of the Society. The Montreal Branch 

 suggested that an interchange of all the more important papers read before the various 

 branches would enable all the members to have the benefit. This suggestion was warmly 

 received by the Toronto Branch, and a few papers were sent up from Montreal, and 

 although the idea has not proved as fruitful as we hoped it would, better results may be, 

 and I trust will be, achieved in the future. 



One other event of the past season to which I should refer, was the advent through 

 the medium of the daily press, of a terrible bogey in the form of a bloodthirsty insect 

 which was " written up " by the knights of the quill under the name of the Kissing Bug. 

 It was said that its scientific name was Melanolestes Picipes, and the wildest stories were 

 told of its deadly ravages. Illustrations of it were published, and various kinds of 

 insects of different orders were exhibited in newspapers' windows as genuine specimens of 

 the bug. Quite a number of deaths were attributed to it, and many timid people, 

 especially women, were seriously alarmed. It started from Washington (there is some- 

 thing ve?y suspicious about this, but perhaps our friends of the Division of Entomology 

 can establish an alibi) and spread all over the continent, creating devastation everywhere 

 with the exception, it is said, of Baltimore, whose newspaper men are reported to have 

 been too conscientious to write it up, though the latter statement seems almost more 

 incredible than the stories told of the bug. At last the secret was given away and the 

 kissing bug pronounced a myth, the story having been started as a hot weather silly 

 season hoax. 



I have again to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. Howard for his kindness in favor- 

 ing me with much interesting information and valuable suggestions which have been of 

 much service to me in the preparations of this address. And now in laying down the 

 office with which you have honored me, and retiring to the comfortable dignity of a 

 Past President, I desire to thank you most heartily for the honor you have done me 

 n electing me to the highest office in your gift, and especially are my thanks due 



