4 BuiiLETIK OP THE NeW TOBK StATE MUSBTTM. 



research ; yet comparatively little could be accomplislied in so vast 

 a field, until speciaUsts could be summoned to the work, prepared 

 to devote to it their entire time, and their best abilities. 



But the progress of which we boast is only great by comparison 

 with the ignorance that formerly prevailed, when directions were 

 given in our agricultural journals " how to destroy the cut-worm," * 

 and "how to prevent caterpillar attack." When measured, how- 

 ever, with what remains to be accomplished, the work seems but 

 barely to have been entered upon— so immense is the number of 

 species to be studied, so varied are their habits, and so secretly are 

 many of their depredations conducted. While the last decade has 

 contributed to our literature the life-history of a large number of 

 destructive species, and has enabled us to find their most vulnerable 

 point of attack and the most effectual means of destruction, there 

 stiU remain several of our more injurious pests, which, as yet, we 

 know not how to control, or how to prevent at times their wresting 

 from us the products of our toil or the objects of our pride. 



We need not be ashamed to make this confession. It in no 

 degree invalidates the importance of entomological investigations. 

 It is simply a consequence of the partial investigations thus far 

 made — commenced only by those who have but recently passed 

 off the stage, and continued by a paltry number of successors ; for, 

 as I have elsewhere stated, there are not within the 3,000,000 of 

 square miles comprising these United States, more than ten persons 

 who are permitted to devote their entire time to the furtherance of 

 economic entomology. If, by a wise provision, this number could 

 be quintupled, through each one of the several States contributing 

 its quota, what rapid progress might be made through such an 

 increased and diffused cooperation. My experience of thirty years 

 in the study of insects enables me to make the assertion, that there 

 is not a single insect pest, the 'depredations of which we can not 

 materidUy control, whenever its entire life-history becomes known to us. 

 The exposed habits of the larvae of most of our Lepidoptera 

 (butterflies and moths), they being external feeders by day upon 

 various plants, shrubs and trees, have made them comparatively 

 easy subjects for study. It is different when we have to deal with 



* In the genera of Agrotis, Mamestra, Hadena, and a few others closely 

 allied, over four hundred United States species of moths have been 

 described, the larvse of most of which, if not all, may be classed as cut- 

 worms. 



