5 



In conclusion, your Council would express the hope that the members will not relax 

 their efforts during the present season, and that the result of the summer's campaign will 

 be even more favourable than that of last year. 



The whole respectfully submitted. 



Geo. J. Bowles, 



President. 



Geo. H. Bowles, 



Secretary. 



Montreal, 17th May, 1880. 



The President then delivered his annual address, for which he received the thanks of 

 the members present. 



ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL 



SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



Gentlemen, — The past season has not been very eventful in Ontario in matters re* 

 lating to insect life. No unusual armies of insect enemies have devastated our crops, and 

 our farmers and fruit-growers, in spite of the few perennial foes, which are always more 

 or less troublesome, have realized a bountiful harvest. 



Early in the season cut worms were very numerous in the neighbourhood of London,, 

 more abundant than I ever remember seeing them before. They destroyed innumerable 

 cabbage plants and other herbaceous plants and flowers ; among the latter, pansies seemed 

 to possess great attraction for them. I saw many fine plants of this flower, of the pre- 

 vious year's growth, eaten close to the ground, both leaves and stalks, and from about the 

 roots of a single plant found in several instances from thirty to fifty of the nearly full- 

 grown larvae. Fortunately their period of activity does not last long, and before the end 

 of June most of them were quietly sleeping in the chrysalis state. 



The question of insectivorous birds, and their influence on the insect world about us,- 

 is attracting much attention, and the more the subject is discussed the more evident it be- 

 comes that very little indeed is known in reference to it ; that our ideas as to what should 

 guide us are largely inherited, or otherwise based on sentiment, rather than resting upon 

 well ascertained facts. I am well aware that to plead in favour of the birds is a popular 

 course to follow ; but the true student of nature is ever seeking after truth, and whether* 

 the facts he discovers are in accord with long cherished opinions and popular fancies, or 

 are directly opposed to them, are questions of little moment. The facts, whatever they 

 may be, are what we want. 



Insectivorous birds may be conveniently divided into three classes : First, those which 

 take their food entirely on the wing ; second, those which feed partly on the wing and 

 partly from trees and shrubs, and on the ground ; and third, those which take no food on 

 the wing, but feed entirely either on the ground or from trees or shrubs. In the first class, 

 besides some rare birds which we do not need to mention here, the following are found com- 

 mon in most parts of our Province : the swallows, Hirundiyiiclce ; kingbird, Tyrannus 

 Carolinensis ; pewee, Sayornis fuscus, and nighthawk, Chordeiles popetue. The food of 

 these birds consists chiefly of flies, a large proportion of which cannot be said to be either 

 noxious or beneficial ; many of them in the earlier stages of their existence live in the 

 water, where they devour decaying vegetation, or feast on the lower and simpler forms of 

 animal and vegetable life. The larvae of many others are scavengers, devouring decaying 

 or putrescent animal and vegetable matter, and hence well deserve to be classed with 

 beneficial insects. In the same class of friendly species will rank a considerable number 

 of others which are parasitic on the bodies of caterpillars, also the rapacious species which* 

 sustain themselves by devouring the weaker and less vigorous of their race. A few rare' 

 exceptions, of which the wheat midge and Hessian fly may be noted as examples, are very 

 injurious to field crops, while the mosquito and black fly are universally branded as- 

 enemies to the human race. These birds also devour a few butterflies and moths, but 



