DR. HARRIS’S REPORT. 
To GreorcE B. Emerson, Esq. : 
Sir :—In compliance with your request, I now send you the 
first part of my report on the insects of Massachusetts. 
The benefits which we derive from insects, though not few in 
number, nor inconsiderable in amount, are, if we except those of the 
silk-worm, the bee, and the cochenille, not very obvious, and are 
wholly beyond our influence. On the contrary, the injuries that we 
suffer from them are becoming yearly more apparent, and are more or 
less within our control. Before suitable remedies can be discovered, 
and effectually applied, it is necessary that our insect enemies should 
be recognized and their habits generally known. The instructions of 
His Excellency the Governor seemed to point to the economical 
advantages to be derived from natural history, as the most proper ob- 
jects of our consideration. These instructions, together with the na- 
ture and extent of the branch of natural history assigned to me 
have led me to think that some account of the insects injurious 
to vegetation in Massachusetts would be acceptable and _ satisfactory 
to the governor, and to the people of this Commonwealth. 
I have endeavored to treat the subject in a plain and familiar way, 
and have introduced no more of the science and language of entomol- 
ogy, than was absolutely necessary to define and discriminate the dif- 
ferent insects whose transformations are described. 
This portion of my report is wholly confined to the insects belong- 
ing to the order coleoptera, which, in the adult state, are commonly 
called beetles. 
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