5 



been laid before you to-day, and which has resulted in the appointment of Mr. J. 

 A. Moffat to the permanent charge of our rooms, library, collections, etc. It will 

 be a great advantage, we are sure, in many ways, to have a qualified person to 

 look after our possessions, and to be on hand at stated times for the admission of 

 members to the rooms, as well as to discharge the other duties appertaining to 

 the position to which he has been appointed. 



While here in April last, a meeting of the local members of the society was 

 held in order to consider a plan for the formation of sections which should include 

 persons who took an interest in any department of Natural Science, and thus 

 extend the operations of the society beyond the strict limits of entomology. The 

 scheme which we agreed upon at that meeting was submitted to other members 

 of the council for their approval, and has been fully ratified to-day. As its 

 details have been laid before you already I need not repeat them here. It was 

 very gratifying to learn that advantage was immediately taken of this arrange- 

 ment, and within a few weeks active sections were formed with very satisfactory 

 lists of members in the departments of Botany. Ornithology and Oology, Geology, 

 and Microscopy. Man}^ new workers have now joined our ranks, among whom 

 we are glad to welcome a large contingent of ladies. A great impetus will thus 

 be given, we trust, to the study of natural science in all its departments in 

 London and the neighbourhood, and we hope that new life and zeal will be 

 infused into the older as well as the later members by active co-operation in the 

 field, the cabinet and the study. 



Another matter upon which I may congratulate the society is the acquisition 

 of the valuable collections of Coleoptera and other orders of insects, laboriously 

 gathered together during many years by Mr. Johnson Pettit, an old and valued 

 member of the society. Having ascertained that he was willing to part with 

 his collections, I at once entered into correspondence with him, learned the sum 

 for which he would be willing to transfer them to the society, and obtained the 

 sanction of the members of the council for the purchase. Mr. Pettit was most 

 reasonable in his terms when he understood the destination of the collections, and 

 allowed us to have them at about half the price he would have asked from a 

 private purchaser. Mr. Moffat did good service in the transaction by visiting 

 Grimsby first to report upon the condition, quantity, etc., of the specimens, and 

 subsequently by superintending their packing and removal to London. It is 

 expected that during the coming winter he will be able in his capacity as curator, 

 to dispose of many of the duplicates by sale or exchange for the benefit of the society. 



I may turn now from the consideration of our own concerns to matters 

 Entomological affecting the country at large, and following the example of my 

 predecessors in their presidential addresses, refer to the work of injurious insects 

 in the garden, orchard and farm. The most important insect pest that requires 

 the careful attention of our farmers is the well-known Hessian 

 Fly (Cecidomyia destructor, Say) Fig. 1, which has made its 

 unwelcome appearance in several parts of the Province. The 

 attacks of this insect upon barley, rye, and wheat, are seldom 

 noticed at first, as the creature is so minute and works out of 

 sight, sucking the sap of the plant from the stem, but con- 

 cealed from observation beneath the sheath of the leaf. Its 

 depredations are usually made known by the breaking down 

 and falliug over of the plant caused by the injury to 'the 

 stem produced by the insect. There are two attacks in the 

 year, one in the autumn, when the maggots may be found 

 embedded in the crown of the root shoots of fall wheat ; the Fig. i. 



other in the summer, when it lies under the leaf-sheath above the first or second- 



