14 



mission is on our hands. An inspection of the matter crowding its 772 pages will, I am 

 sure, convince any one competent to judge, of the wisdom of the appropriation made for 

 its support. The Cotton-worm Commission has already actively entered upon its work. 



To Government aid we owe the publication of Packard's Monograph of Phalsenidse 

 — a beautiful quarto of attractive typography and ample and excellent illustration ; 

 Thomas' Acrididae of North America, with. 260 quarto pages and illustrations; the Reports 

 on Ilymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hemiptera and Orthoptera in Lieut. Wheeler's 

 Surveys west of the 100th Meridian, of 331 quarto pages and several chromo lithographic 

 plates ; and to Reports on several orders of insects by Chambers, Grote, Hagen, Osten- 

 Sacken, Packard, Scudder, Thomas and Uhler, in the Annual Reports and the Bulletins 

 of the Hay den Survey of the Territories. 



The liberality displayed by our Government in the publication and gratuitous dis- 

 tribution, to those whose scientific labours render them worthy recipients, of investiga- 

 tions in other departments of Natural Science — in Geology, Palaeontology, Mammalogy, 

 Ornithology, Ichthyology, Botany, etc., deserves our most earnest commendation. The 

 facility of publication thus afforded to meritorious work almost evokes the envy of some 

 of our European friends. 



In conclusion, permit me to commend to the members of the club the biological 

 study of our insect forms. It is attractive ; it is simple in many of its phases ; it is of 

 great practical utility ; it is a field where all can find abundant work, and one in which 

 some of those questions which are engaging the attention of zoologists in other departments ; 

 may best find their most ready answer. Let no one be satisfied with the simple possession 

 of a large and w^ell-arranged cabinet of insects. If to collect and own it be a source of plea- 

 sure, often beyond expression, then science may demand at his hands that he should aid 

 in extending its boundaries in return ; and in no better way can this be done than in work- 

 ing out the life histories of our species, beginning with those with which we hold the 

 more intimate relationship. Let descriptions of forms remain, except in exceptional 

 cases, for those who have special fitness and opportunity for the work ; and system ization 

 for him who, like the poet, nascitur non fit, that kaleidoscopic manipulation of genera and 

 the higher groups may cease to bewilder, perplex and dismay. 



In illustration of what may be done in the study that I commend to you, I would 

 refer to the labours of Mr. W. H. Edwards in working out the histories of some of those 

 butterflies which appear under different forms at different seasons of the year. Some of 

 the results are known to you, and I am sure that jo\x regard them as among the most 

 valuable recent contributions to Entomology. The untiring zeal with which the work 

 has been prosecuted and is being continued deserves the commendation which it has 

 received from the most eminent European Entomologists, and the success with which it 

 has been crowned. 



Gentleman, I trust that our assemblage at this time may not onl}'" conduce to the 

 interests of our science, but also render its pursuit more pleasant to us, through the privi- 

 lege it affords of personal acquaintance, comparison of observations, interchange of 

 opinion, and the strengthening of those bonds of sympathy which should (they do not 

 always) unite those who labour in our common cause. 



On the motion of Mr. A. R. Grote, of Buffalo, a resolution was passed requesting 

 the Canadian Entomologist to publish the President's Address and the proceedings of this 

 meeting. 



Mr. E. B. Reed, of London, Canada, associate editor of the Canadian Entomologist, 

 apologized for the unavoidable absence of the Yice President, Mr. Wm. Saunders, and 

 stated that the editor of the Canadian Entomologist would be most happy to comply with 

 the wishes of the Club respecting the publication of the proceedings of the meeting. 



Mr. A. R. Grote exhibited some insects from Georgia — Cailosamia augulifera, Eacles 

 didyma, Lagoa joyxidi/era, Heterocampa obliqua. In the South he had found that 

 X luna, Sarnia cecropia, Telea polyphemus and Saturnia io were double-brooded, while on the 

 contrary, Citheronia regalis was only single-brooded. 



Prof. Wetherby stated that in his section, and in other parts also of the North- Wes- 

 tern States, many of the above-named moths were also double-brooded. 



Miss Emily A. Smith, of the Scientific Association of Peoria, 111., submitted to the 

 meeting a most interesting account of Lecanium acericorticis, Fitch, a bark-louse, that had 



