20 
Psyche 
[March 
number of very successful attempts have been made to deal 
taxonomically with the larval stages of diverse groups; 
many Lepidoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Coleoptera and 
Trichoptera have been studied with great care and if the 
human race persists long enough this task will increase 
until it becomes larger and undoubtedly more difficult than 
that presented by imaginal insects. So far it has corro- 
borated many of the conclusions reached from taxonomic 
studies on adult insects and has served to give us faith in 
the principles of entomological classification. Considering, 
as we have said, the intricate complexity of the insect fauna, 
entomologists can point with pride to their accomplishments 
during the past 70 years of the post-Darwinian regime ; and 
that is one very good reason why none of us wishes to return 
to the fundamentalist doctrine that we can never under- 
stand organic relationships. It must be admitted that some 
scandalous discrepancies as well as many minor errors of 
judgment have been exposed by this work on the prepara- 
tory stages, and these are proving a great aid toward clari- 
fying systematics in various groups, especially those where 
characters of dubious validity have been widely used. 
Throughout all the most recent work in systematic en- 
tomology there is a most pronounced tendency toward great 
specialization, and a growing worship of the species and the 
type specimen. The former is nurtured as we have said by 
the desire to enter very early into productive research, and 
the latter is fostered most assiduously by the modern 
museum curator. There is also evidence on every side that 
systematics is being systematized and standardized, just as 
business, teaching, manufacture and every other human 
activity has been mechanized at the hands of the efficiency 
expert. The last has been lately transmuted into the admin- 
istrator or popularly as the modern executive. So far few 
entomologists have fallen under this spell, for most of them 
are more interested in their work than in aspirations to the 
mahogany desks, telephones and the other furnishings that 
are prerequisites of such a job. Some of them at least may 
be trusted to remain as free lances who are ready to drop 
an occasional fly or other specimen in the entomological 
cream as it emerges in a velvety stream from the systematic 
separator. It is only such behavior that will prevent a too 
great uniformity in our product. 
