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November 1, 1913, 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ENTOMOLOGIST, 


























‘The following letter received some time ago from one of the bright- 
C Band most promising of the younger generation of entomologists, not 
the Government service, will appeel to more than one of the members 
this division. 
' "It appears to me that the form of teaching which deals with book 
mtements regarding insect life, and with pictures, even good lantern 
fades, largely, instead of with living, active insects will always 
a1 tO make a man into an independent observer. All this sort of 
aching should follow, rather far away, the study of the living, ac- 
fe organisms themselves. 
"Years ago, when I was a boy collecting insects and beginning to 
ht them rather well, our botanist and entomologist said to me one 
* "You do not seem to be at all interested in this work. I wish 
ju would take this book and read up about these butterflies and their 
bits.’ I did read up and acquired almost and active dislike for the 
pect. But I did notice some illustrations of native bombycids, and 
find among some papered spec.mens a Luna moth or two which I mount- 
9 Then, in the winter I ran across the cocoon of what we called 
atysamia ceanothi. It was to me very marvelous, the tough outer en- 
ope, the beautiful brown inner cocoon suspended from the outer. A 
ich more perfect cocoon than that of the eastern form. And when the 
ths from a dozen such cocoons emerged in the spring I raved over 
isir beauty. That woke me up. 
© "I put aside all the books the second summer, stopped general col- | 
icting except in the butterflies of the region, whose beauty held me; and 
igen rearing everything under the sun. That summer I learned more about i 
sect life than in all the years that followed for another decade, 
s delightful novelty of the whole thing was so amazing. I resolved 
be an entomologist. 
' "The third summer I began making exhibition mounts for our collec- 
Lori, I had @ mounted life history of the cabbage butterfly; another 
'the Platysamia of whicn I spoke; one of a nest of wasps, Polistes, 
ith bottled stages, from the eggs to the adult; carpenter worms and 
ie@ir work with the chrysalids and male and female moths; the clothes 
Jth; the larder beetle; various insect galls and their makers, and 
larval stages. I think tney were excellently mointed end laheled; 
2 whole thing done with taste and great accuracy. These rearings, 
lid the making of these mounts gave me an interest which has made or 
arred my whole life (mother wanted me to be an Episcopal clergyman). 
amount of lecture work in the ciass room would have been listened 
Mi etentively, on it I should have passed good examinations; I would 
ive forgotten it all by now. The joy of doing it all myself, the 
easure of learning, the zeal and enthusiasm growing out of the use of 
r growing powers faster than they really grew; these things made me 
1 entomologist." 

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