189 -^ ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 35 



While Thomas Say has come to be honored by the title of " Father of American 

 Entomology," he had already himself bestowed that or a similar title upon Rev. F. V. 

 Melsheimer, and in his " American Entomology " he calls him the " parent of entomology 

 in this country." In 1806, so far as I am able to determine, Rev. F. V. Melsheimer 

 published the first general catalogue of North American coleoptera. In 1842 the Ento- 

 mological Society of Pennsylvania was formed for the purpose of giving an impulse to 

 the study of entomology by bringing together the cultivators of the science and preparing 

 a catalogue of the coleoptera of the country. Owing to the fact that many species of 

 coleoptera had been described in England and Europe, as well as in this country, and 

 many species were to be found in the cabinets of American collectors without names, 

 there was almost utter confusion and it was thought that a catalogue of all described 

 species would, in a measure at least, reduce this chaos to system and facilitate the further 

 study of this interesting order of insects. Accordingly the preparation of this catalogue 

 was assigned to Dr. F. E. Melsheimer, son of Rev. F. V. Melsheimer, author of the first 

 catalogue. This was prepared for publication and afterwards revised and enlarged by 

 Dr. J. L LeOonte and S. S. Haldeman, and published in 1853 by the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution. And from this has evolved our check lists of North American Ooleoptera. 



After the death of Thomas Say in 1834 several gentlemen took up the work and as 

 there had been several scientific bodies organized, and the publications of these offered 

 facilities for printing the results of their labors, a considerable impulse was offered to the 

 advancement of the science. Among these workers was Maj. LeOonte and later his son, 

 Dr. John L LeOonte, who afterwards did so much for American coleopterology ; Dr. S, S. 

 Haldeman, Professor N. M, Hentz. Dr. Christian Zimmerman and Edward C. Herrick. 

 Among the work of foreign entomologists as related to American species we note especi- 

 ally that of Rev. Wm. Kirby, who was the author of th-\t portion of Sir John Richard- 

 son's " Fauna Boreali- Americana " which treats of insects. This contained descriptions 

 of no less than 447 species of Canadian insects, especially coleoptera, and was published 

 in 1837, having since been revised and republished in the "Canadian Entomologist" by 

 Dr. Bethune. In 1840 Mr. P. H. Gosse published in England a list of 26 buoterflies, 

 43 moths and a number of other orders, 14 of which were figured. It was with these 

 advances and in this condition that the beginning of the last half of the present century 

 found the science of entomology in America. There was great confusion in regard to 

 species and this seemed to prevent any rapid progress, both in the pure as well as the 

 applied science, for the latter must always await the advance of the former. As I have 

 stated, the Smithsonian Institution, by the publication of Melsheimer's Catalogue of the 

 Coleoptera, greatly assisted workers in that order of insects but the good work stopped 

 there and it was nearly five years before other orders were similarly treated in the publi- 

 cations of this institution. 



The new and beautifully illustrated edition of Harris's Insects Injurious to Vegetation 

 gave this work a renewed value and popularity, especially among the agricultural classes. 

 In 1854 there appeared a series of volumes illustrating the agricultural and natural history 

 of New York. Volume V of the series was devoted to the more common and inj arious 

 species of insects. It is a large quarto volume profusely and brilliantly illustrated, but 

 one for which entomologists have not been able to find any particular use. 



In 1855 Dr. Asa Fitch received the appointment of entomologist to the New York 

 State Agricultural Society, the Legislature having made provision for the establishment 

 of the office which was synonymous with that of State Entomologist. The selection of 

 Dr. Fitch was a wise one, and he promptly began to take up the work so well begun in 

 Massachusetts by Dr. Harris, and for fourteen years his annual reports went out not only to 

 aid the farmer to cope with injurious species, but also to aid the more technical 

 entomologist, as a considerable number of the original descriptions of our insects are to 

 be found therein. In 1856 the Canadian Bureau of Agriculture and Statistics offered 

 prizes of =£40, £25 and £15 for the best essays, respectively, on the "origin, nature and 

 habits, and the history of the progress from time to time, — and the cause of the progress — 

 of the weevil, Hessian fly, midge and other insects as have made ravages on the wheat 

 crops of Canada ; and on such diseases as the wheat crops have been subject to, and on 



