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ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL 



SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



To Vat Members of the Entomological Society of Ontario : — 



Gentlemen, — Eaeh revolving year brings its duties. To day it is my privilege and a 

 very pleasing duty to offer again to you a few words of encouragement, to refer briefly to 

 some of the fjntomological achievements of the past, and do what I can towards stimulating 

 to further effort. The importance of the study of Eatomol:)gy is yearly impressing itself 

 more and more upon the public mind, as insect foes hitherto scarce become abundant, or as 

 new ones invade our domain. 



At present we are in danger from the approach of a new insect enemy which promises 

 to give us a great deal of trouble. I refer to the new Carpet Bug, Anthrenus scraphularice. 

 It was during the summer of 1S74 that attention was first called by some of the newspapers 

 in the Eastern States to the great damage being done to carpets in some of their cities on the 

 sea-board by the ravages of an insect quite different from the well known Carpet Moth, Tinea 

 tapetzella, and far more destructive ; one which would attack new carpets as readily as old 

 ones, and devour their substance with such rapidity and persistence as to raise a doubt in 

 some minds as to whether, in case this insect becomes generally prevalent, the use of carpets 

 could be continued at all. Two years later this pestw^is found common in Schenectady, N. T., 

 when they were shortly brought under the notice of one of our most active and thorough 

 workers in the Entomological field, Prof. J. A. Liotner, of Albany, N. Y., who at once pro- 

 ceeded to investigate the life history of the insect. Up to this time little or nothing was 

 known here in reference to it, other than that the destructive creature was a larva of some 

 sort, nearly oval in form and about three-sixteenths of an inch long, with the body clothed 

 with short hairs which were longer at each extremity. A number of these larvae were col- 

 lected and fed upon pieces of carpet, and their transformations carefully watched until the 

 disclosure of the perfect insect, when it proved to be a member of that very destructive family 

 of beetles known to Entomologists as the Dermestidae. This insect, which proves to be a 

 European species, has probably been imported from Europe with carpets brought to New 

 Y^ork and Boston, at which ports its destructive efforts first attracted attention. The beetle,, 

 the parent of all this mischief, is a very small one, being not more than one-eighth of an inch, 

 long, and one-twelfth of an inch broad ; it is nearly oval, black, with faint red and white 

 markings. It does not confine its attention to carpets, but will eat any sort of woollen goods, 

 but does not appear to injure those of cotton. In Europe it is said to destroy furs, clothes, 

 collections of animals, insects and plants, and is sometimes very injurious to leather. A more 

 detailed description of this insect and its workings, as furnished by Prof. Lintner's observa- 

 tiuns in his recent " Entomological Contributions,"' will be given in the annual report of our 

 Society. As this insect has for some time past been committing great ravages in Buffalo, 

 New York, it is not likely that we shall be long free from it ; indeed it is altogether proba- 

 ble that it is already ia our midst, although I am not aware that it has yet been brought 

 under the notice of any of our Entomologists. Unfortunately it is a very difficult p^st to 

 destroy. The ordinary applications, such as camphor, pepper, tobacco, turpentine and car- 

 bolic acid, have, it is asserted, been tried without success, and no effectual means for its de- 

 struction has yet been devised. 



Strange that so many of our most injurious insects have been brought from Europe, and 

 that when introduced here they multiply to a far greater extent than in their native home. This 

 rapid increase doubtless arises from the fact that they have numerous parasites in the place 

 of their nativity which prey on them, and that these parasites are rarely imported with them, 

 and hence it becomes a question of great practical importance as to whether these parasites 

 might not by special effort be introduced, and thus materially lessen the losses which tliese 

 /scourges inflict on the community. We are indebted to Europe for the Codling Moth of the 

 apple, Carpoca.psa pomondla ; the Currant Worm, Nematus ventHcosus ; the Oyster-shell 

 Bark Louse, Aspidiotus conchiformis ; the Cabbage Butterfly, Pieris rapoe ; the Currant 

 Bore r, ^geria tipuliformis ; the Hessian Fly, Cecidomyia destructor ; the Wheat Midge, 

 Biplosis tritici ; the Grain Weevil, Sitophilus granarius ; the Cheese Maggot, Fiopila 

 asei; the Cockroach, Blatta orientalis ; the Meal Worm, Tenehrio molitor ; the^Bee Moth, 



