66 
I would not have it supposed for a single moment that I think the 
work of the systematist is finished; on the contrary, a vast amount of 
systematic work yet remains to be accomplished. It has been calculated 
that about 2,000,000 insects exist, of which only some 200,000 have as 
yet been described, so that there is still plenty of room for the collector 
and for the species-namer. We cannot say, however, that the student 
of insects allows the collector of insects now-a-days to have it all his 
own way quite so much as was the case some forty years ago. Writing 
in 1856, Sir John Lubbock says :—“ I find that in the last four volumes 
of the Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, 818 pages are 
devoted solely to description of species and genera, while all the other 
departments of the science occupy only 244, of which 208 treat of the 
habits of insects, and there is not a single paper on physiolog} 7- or 
internal anatomy.” If the last four volumes of the Transactions of the 
same Societ} r contain but few articles on the physiology or anatomy of 
insects, it must at the same time be admitted that a comparatively 
small amount of space is given to the descriptions of new genera and 
species, whilst a comparatively large amount is devoted to experimental 
entomology and philosophical deductions therefrom. In fact, students 
now are breaking up rapidly into systematists, who still continue to de¬ 
scribe genera and species, and biological entomologists, who combine with 
their biological studies a study of the relationships of the insects to one 
another and to their environment. With the general spread of scientific 
education during the last quarter of a century, there can be no doubt 
that a large number of entomologists, who, in the days when Sir John 
Lubbock penned the above extract, could never possibly have hoped to 
be anything more than collectors, or, at the most, systematists, are now 
really good and earnest scientific students. 
Of all the Orders that come within the ken of entomological science, 
the Lepidoptera have furnished the greatest amount of material for 
philosophic study. The coleopterist still works away at his species; 
but scarcely any coleopterist of repute has written a deeply philosophical 
paper on the Order which he has made his special study.. The mar¬ 
vellous habits of ants, bees and social wasps have brought the hyrnen- 
opterist to the fore, but the students of the other orders rarely write 
anything of general interest. The young and well-educated individual, 
who to-day takes up the collecting of Lepidoptera as recreation and 
study combined, usually puts enough energy into his work to name the 
Macro-lepidoptera of his native country in two or three years, and the 
Micro-lepidoptera in three or four more, and then he usually commences 
to look about for varieties. True, one here and there may do this from 
the most mercenary and unworthy motives, and with no desire to learn 
what the diversities and differences expressed by variation mean, just 
as he may have collected Macro- and Micro-lepidoptera without 
wishing to understand their habits, anatomy or physiology. But, 
in such cases, the collections are the end instead of the means, and we, 
I am sure, shall all agree with the sentiment expressed by Sir John 
Lubbock, that “ to collect merely for the sake of collecting, has a direct 
tendency to narrow the mind. To aspire only to be able to say that 
one has in one’s cabinet a certain number of species, or some rare sorts 
which nobody else possesses, is surely an ambition quite unworthy of a 
true entomologist.” 
Although collecting, then, must always be considered as a legitimate 
part of an entomologist’s work (nay, up to a certa inpoint, as a neces- 
