REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I918 23I 



know something about this vast assemblage with its multifarious 

 possibilities for good or evil, and since recognition and differentiation 

 are essential to intelligent study, the assemblage and classification 

 of immense series must necessarily precede economical and effective 

 investigations, whether the latter be taxonomic, biologic or essentially 

 economic. An extensive, well -classified collection is fundamental 

 and the importance of this phase of the work should not be under- 

 estimated in any comprehensive scheme for an entomological survey 

 of the State such as is really now in progress, though not ordinarily 

 characterized as such. 



The occasional outbreaks of previously almost unknown or obscure 

 insects illustrate in a convincing manner the need of studying some 

 of the comparatively unknown or neglected groups if we would be 

 in the best possible position to meet future emergencies. The 

 discovery last winter of larvae of the European corn borer in New 

 York State brought us face to face with the real difficulty of dis- 

 tinguishing between the caterpillar of this pest and that of an allied 

 native, comparatively innocuous form and this, in spite of the fact 

 that the genus Pyrausta, to which the European corn borer belongs, 

 has been considered as of little or no economic importance in the 

 new world. Similar situations may arise in the future and no man 

 can predict the difficult combinations entomologists may be expected 

 to solve in the near future. The complex problems of adaptation 

 to food plant, to climate and soil, hinted at above, necessitate the 

 extension of investigations into realms not ordinarily considered 

 entomological, though with a very definite bearing upon questions 

 of control or probable injury. 



A program in relation to the insects of the State of New York 

 which fails to take into account these various factors and which 

 does not provide for the adequate prosecution of the fundamental 

 taxonomic and physiologic problems as well as the investigations 

 of more immediate application, means the attempted direction of a 

 very important line of work under a serious handicap and almost 

 inevitable, though easily preventable, losses greatly in excess of the 

 cost of such studies and investigations. 



