286 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. LIII 



two insects tliat could l)e discovered by the writer; internal and 

 external anatomy, embryology, life history, parasites, etc. 

 Present indications are that it will take an average ot' about 

 six years to finish ( I) each one of these projects. Yet such a 

 seemingly slow rate of -progress is made possible only by the 

 fact that some one working somewhere has described these two 

 species and given thein names. The one species was described 

 without tlie describer ever having seen the male! Yet without 

 this inadequate description progress on this problem would 

 have been very greatly delayed. And so it is in every other 

 field that these problems touch. Some one has described some- 

 where 29 species of parasitic hymenoptera, one of tliis iuiml)er 

 preying upon one of the si)ecies involved. Yet the describer 

 knew only the adult and that only iuiperfectly, l)ut his knowl- 

 edge plus my own sends us one step nearer the complete knowl- 

 edge of this species which "X" craves. And our knowledge of 

 this species plus some one's knowledge of other related species 

 rai.ses us just one step nearer the truth which should be the 

 goal of all human thought, and all science, zoology not even 

 excepted. 



I am interested in the phylogenetic relationship of a group 

 ot" insects of no great economic importance. Especially am I 

 iiircrcstcd in the genealogical tree of these insects as shown by 

 tlic iii-()ii|)s of characters of one structure. Now such work is 

 iiijidc possihh^ because three men in this country have devoted 



