4 rorKEWOKi>. 



determine accurately all the species "within a reasonable time- 

 Hence, it wonld seem wise at first to confine attention to such 

 insects and ticks that bite or ' sting ^ man or his domesticated 

 animals with their mouth-parts, or are parasites of man and 

 domesticated animals ; also to such as may be responsible in 

 other ways for the dissemination of disease, and to those which 

 are at present, and patently, destroying crops and timber. 



'^ There would further be necessary a publication in wdiich the results 

 of the work done could be rendered accessible to those at work and to 

 the public. 



" Finally, I should like to add that, in my opinion, a similar scheme 

 for investigating the vermian and protozoan parasites of man and 

 domesticated animals in the same Colonies is urgently to be desired.'''' 



The object of the Committee, as outlined above, is to procure the fullest 

 possible knowledge of the Insects of tropical and subtropical Africa. 

 Arrangements have, however, been made through the C^olonial Office by 

 which the Committee will be kept in touch with the organisations that 

 already exist ; both to the north, with the authorities of the Sudan and of 

 Egjpt^ and to the south, with the Entomologists of Rhodesia and the united 

 South African States. 



The need for such an organisation is obvious. According to the calcula- 

 tions of Dr. Glinther, in the year 1830 the number of insects described and 

 named, and in many cases figured, was 49,100, or let us call it 50,000 ; in the 

 year 1881 the number increased almost to 220,150, or let us call it 220,000. 



Taking an average year (1897) between 1881 and the present date, but 

 rather nearer the latter because yearly the number of newly described species 

 become larger, Dr. Sharp tells us that according to the Zoological Record the 

 number of insects described in this year was 8,364. If we multiply this 

 num1)er by twenty-seven, the number of years which have elapsed since 

 Dr. Gimther made his estimate, we find a total of 225,828 (call it in round 

 numbers 225,000) insects described and named in the last twenty-seven years. 

 If we add to this the number of insects estimated by Dr. Glinther in 1881, we 

 reach a total of 447^978, in round numbers nearly 450,000 Iniown and njimed 

 insects. Calculations, dealing wdth the whole number of animals of all sorts 

 described or figured and not with Insects alone, show that there are at 

 present some 600,000 described species of living animals, and it becomes 

 apparent that of this large total about three-fourths belong to the Group 

 Insecta. 



The estimated number of described Insects, large as it seems, is however 

 but small in comparison with the number of species collected and deposited 

 in Museums w^here no one has time to work them out. It is still 



