372 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 13 
tomology of the services of one of its most brilliant, able, and amiable 
young entomologists. 
Wilbur Ross McConnell was born at Whitesburg, Pa., in 1881. The 
basis of his education was secured in the public schools at that place. 
He graduated from the Pennsylvania State Normal School at Indiana, 
in 1900, and from the Pennsylvania State College in 1906, with the 
degree of B. S. specializing in zoology and entomology. Professor 
McConnell took a special course in zoology at Cornell University in 
1908, and received his M. S. from Pennsylvania State College in 1910. 
After matriculation Professor McConnell served as Scientific Assis¬ 
tant in the Division of Zoology of the Pennsylvania State Department 
of Agriculture at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he conducted re¬ 
searches regarding the animal foods of native reptiles, and especially 
the snakes and turtles of Pennsylvania. The results of these studies 
have been published in the bulletin of the State Division of Zoology. 
In the fall of 1907 Professor McConnell was appointed Assistant Pro¬ 
fessor of Zoology and Entomology at the Pennsylvania State College, 
and placed in charge of the Department. His work in this capacity 
was very successful, as shown by the character of his graduates, a con¬ 
siderable number of whom are among the most successful investigators 
in Federal and State employ. 
In 1912 Professor McConnell was appointed Scientific Assistant in 
the Federal Bureau of Entomology, and assigned by the late Professor 
Webster to the study of the fall army worm in the lower Mississippi 
Valley. Shortly afterward he was placed in charge of an entomological 
field station at Greenwood, Mississippi, where he remained for about 
one year. While there he conducted with marked ability investiga¬ 
tions of the parasitic enemies of the fall army worm and insects attack¬ 
ing the leguminous forage crops. Professor McConneirs work at 
Greenwood was terminated prematurely by an attack of illness, from 
which he never fully recovered. The summer of 1914 was spent in the 
investigation of the insect enemies of forage crops in the southwestern 
states, and in the fall of that year he was placed in charge of a field 
laboratory at Hagerstown, Maryland, with the investigation of the 
Hessian fly as his major project. In this work he made especial prog¬ 
ress in the study of the Hymenopterous parasites of the insect. These 
studies were transferred to Carlisle, in 1917, where he was deeply im¬ 
mersed in research when stricken by fatal illness. 
Professor McConnell's additions to our knowledge of the insect para¬ 
sites of the Hessian fly are numerous and valuable. Several species 
new to science were discovered by him and the list of parasites of the 
Hessian fly in America was enriched from some half dozen or more to 
at least thirty species. Professor McConnell had chosen as his special 
