14 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 13 
on Policy has made provision for a sub-committee on entomological 
research and standards, and since the Committee on Entomological 
Investigations find that after interviewing a number of the members 
of the Association, they believe that this sub-committee is in a position 
to handle this work, your Committee on Entomological Investigations 
has decided to make no report. In view of the facts your committee 
would like to suggest that the Committee on Entomological Investiga¬ 
tions be discontinued. This report is signed by myself as chairman, 
and Messrs. P. J. Parrott and W. J. Schoene. I move that the report 
be accepted and the matter of discontinuing this committee be referred 
to the Committee on Resolutions for later report. 
The motion was carried. 
President W. C. O’Kane: I will now call for the report of the 
Committee on U. S. National Museum. 
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 
The following information has been gathered, carefully studied and approved by 
your committee. 
Conception of the Duties of the National Museum 
The duties of the National Museum in relation to entomology are, we believe, to 
act as: 
1. A national repository for the insect collections, the primary goal being to have as 
complete a representation of the fauna of the North American continent as possible, 
but emphasis to be placed also on the completeness of the collections from the entire 
world for reasons noted later. The Museum should also be a national repository for 
types of American species. 
2. An investigational institution where the staff, Bureau of Entomology workers, 
other entomologists and advanced students could be provided with ample and satis¬ 
factory rooms for investigations on insects. 
3. An educational institution for the laymen. This would necessitate popular 
exhibits illustrating the variety of insects, and the importance of their relation to 
human existence and interest. 
The duties are indirectly stated in the 1918 Repprt of the U. S. National Museum. 
Importance of Insects in Nature Study 
The importance of insects to nature study is evident to everyone. The enormous 
number of individual species in comparison with the number of species of other 
animals or plants, their wonderful and remarkable variations and adaptations, and 
their relations and interrelations to all nature are evidence of the need of a more 
general knowledge of insects among laymen. This is more evident to the practical 
entomologist who every day realizes, from personal contact, the value of a general 
and correct knowledge of insects to enable the individual to comprehend and apply 
control measures. 
Importance of Insects from the Purely Economic Point of View 
Probably no other factor in nature is more closely related to human existence than 
are insects, with the possible exception of human diseases. The success or failure of 
