ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY UN DEB THE ADAMS ACT. 81 



tilled and with much virgin soil. In his presidential address at the 

 fifth meeting of this association, Doctor Forbes noted a satisfaction 

 with the present methods and a dearth of new methods of work. 



Has not this tendency continued to some extent, and do we not need 

 more pioneer work along the lines of pure science which will furnish 

 a basis for the future development of economic entomology and 

 insect control? Much has been done, which will be noted below; 

 but there is certainly vastly more to do if our science is to make any 

 marked advance in the future, comparable with the advance- in 

 other branches of science, or if advance in the control of agricultural 

 pests is to equal that now occurring in the control of insects affect- 

 ing health. 



Such new principles may be sought and furnish objects for research 

 in various phases of economic entomology. 



(1) Our studies of life histories are principally of value in reveal- 

 ing the vital time at which an insect may he attacked, and often the 

 method of control, but the time factor i- the dominant one. Would 

 not exhaustive studies of the relation of temperature, moisture, lati- 

 tude, altitude, etc.. in short, climatic influences upon the various stages 

 and processes of the transformations of insects, be of the greatest value 

 in revealing the time at which certain pe>ts might best be fought in 

 certain localities, and the number of generation- and consequent 

 de-tructiveness of a pest in different latitudes ? Something along this 

 line was done by Dr. A. D. Hopkins and Prof. F. M. Webster in their 

 studies of the Hessian fly in West Virginia and Ohio, and recently 

 by the staff of the Bureau of Entomology in their work upon the 

 boll weevil and bollworm. The importance of such work seems to be 

 increasingly appreciated. 



(2) The structure and physiology of an insect, including it- habit-, 

 determine to a large extent the method of control. We know that a 

 chewing insect can usually be poisoned with arsenicals and that a 

 sucking bug must be handled otherwise, but have we carried our 

 studies of anatomy and physiology far enough? Might we not learn 

 more of vital importance? In his presidential address at the eighth 

 meeting. Prof. C. H. Fernald called attention to the need of our 

 securing the cooperation of the chemist and physiologist, and the work 

 of the gipsy-moth committee furnished some example- of the wisdom 

 of tin- advice; ( )f even simple features of anatomy we are often igno- 

 rant. For example, the writer recently had difficulty in ascertaining 

 whether the common imbricated snout-beetle (Epicccrus imbricatus 

 Say) was winged or not. and the matter was only decided by the kind- 

 lie— of Mr. Schwarz, who examined specimens in the National 

 Museum, proving the species to be apterous. A very similar beetle 

 affecting peach foliage in Texas was controlled by us by banding the 



■; 1^7— No. 07 — 07 G 



