Entomologist

“ Great as was his botanical information, he excelled in a still higher degree as an entomologist and ornithologist; he was acquainted with the shape and habits of every bird and every butterfly, every branch of his knowledge helping him to enlarged success in the prosecution of the others, botany aiding entomology, and entomology facilitating botany. It was his extensive and accurate knowledge of plants that rendered him so [171] expert in finding rare insects, being aware what species the latter feed upon, and familiar with their forms. ”

“ We frequently hear it asserted, that, since the members of the Insecta are so numerous and minute, when compared with those of other departments of the organic world, the entomologist, whose province it is to collect and classify them, can have but little time, if he attempt the real advancement of his particular science, for generalizations on a broad scale. ”

“ And it was not even easy to determine just what constitutes an entomologist under our present-day methods of specialization, for 'while not so long ago any person interested in the study of insects at all might be called an entomologist, there are now many students of insects who know nothing at all about them as a whole, but a very great deal about some small, almost or quite invisible part of a single species or group. ”

“ Nature must be studied in detail, and it is the wonderful variety of the species of a group, their complicated relations and their endless modification of form, size and colours, which constitute the pre-eminent charm of the entomologist's study. ”

“ The Lepidoptera are divided into two very unequal groups, to which we have so frequently alluded as 'Butterflies' and 'Moths.' And, although these two terms are popularly applied in a fairly accurate manner, yet, strange to say, very few persons indeed have any definite knowledge of the differences that entomologists recognise between the two groups.
Every entomologist has his circle of sympathetic and, perhaps, even admiring friends. ”

“ There are entomologists, who may be seen with a rude-looking net, ready to catch any winged insect, or a kind of dredge, with which they rake the green and slimy pools; practical, shrewd, hard-working men, who pore over every new specimen with real scientific delight. ”

“ The travelling entomologist can stick numerous species, the joy of the collector and the nomenclator, into his boxes; but to gather circumstantial documents is a very different matter. A Wandering Jew of science, he has no time to stop. ”

“ In this paper Forbes defines (pp. 16-18) ecology and points out, I believe for the first time, that economic entomology is simply applied ecology. He says, “The study of œcology is thus to the economic entomologist what the study of physiology is to the physician.”
1909. Aspects of Progress in Economic Entomology. Journ. Econ. Ent., Vol. II, pp. 25-35.
Especially pp. 28-32 on the relation of ecology to economic entomology.
Herdmann, W. A.
1896. Oceanography, Bionomics, and Aquiculture. Smithsonian Report for 1895, pp. 433-454.
Emery, C.
1905. ”

“ That a name had been used by some ancient author to designate an insect of some kind, or that there was no certain proof of the contrary, has been deemed a sufficient reason by modern entomologists for the application of an ancient name to a new genus. Our entomological systems contain names employed by the ancients, the signification of which is so entirely lost that it is matter of doubt whether they belonged to an animal or a plant. ”

“ I wish all entomologists were actuated by the same in print my willingness to forward to those engaged in science although there are men for whom I have certainly have put myself to inconvenience to serve indeed if it were not for about half a dozen men whom I do regard most sincerely I believe sometimes I would give up entomology altogether I meet with so little encouragement and so much vexation but I will turn from this unpleasant subject and answer your letter and before I do so let me ask you if you see the Annals de la Societe Ent. ”

“ Yet though entomologists may be in reality as well qualified as any other natural historians for drawing general conclusions from the result of their researches, it is impossible to conceal the fact, that, as a body, they have not ordinarily done so. ”

“ Finally, there are entomologists, conchologists, etc., who, exclusively interested in the distinction of innumerable species by purely external characters, are entirely ignorant of physiological phenomena, and judge living beings as they would fossils. ”

“ To study living entomology, that is, to study the insect living its life and in the [313] highest manifestations of its life, in its instincts and its habits, in its aptitudes and its passions, in a word, in its psychic faculties; to replace the dominant standpoint of morphology and physiology by the standpoint of biology and psychology; such is the essential programme of the writer of the Souvenirs. ”

“ The fact that the enormous literature of isolated articles is to be found principally in foreign periodicals and is therefore difficult of access to many American workers, has led the authors to hope that a summary of the important advances, in the form of a reference book may not prove unwelcome to physicians, sanitarians and working entomologists, and to teachers as a text supplementing lecture work in the subject. ”

“ —I suppose you are an entomologist?—I said with a note of interrogation.
-Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name! ”

“ Not only have fossils, as we have seen, a most important bearing upon the sciences of Geology and Physical Geography, but they have relations of the most complicated and weighty character with the numerous problems connected with the study of living beings, or in other words, with the science of Biology. To such an extent is this the case, that no adequate comprehension of Zoology and Botany, in their modern form, is so much as possible without some acquaintance with the types of animals and plants which have passed away. ”

“ Palaeontological work has often been undertaken by men who are pure geologists, and whose knowledge of zoology or botany is of the most superficial character, with the result that biologists have not been able to avail themselves, to any considerable extent, of the records of extinct forms of life.13 They find the literature is often characterised by a special palaeontological phraseology, and by particular methods of treatment, which are unknown to the student of living plants and animals. ”

“ Nomenclators’ entomology is making enormous strides: it overwhelms us, swamps us. The other, biologists’ entomology, the only interesting branch of the science, the only one really worthy of our attention, is neglected to such an extent that the commonest species has no history or calls for serious revision of the little that has been written about it. ”

“ I have been spending my Sunday morning in drawing up a list of headings, which will I think exhaust biology from the Animal point of view, and each of which does not involve more than you are likely to get from one man. In many cases, i.e. "Insecta," "Entomology," I have subdivided the subjects, because, by an unlucky peculiarity of workers in these subjects, men who understand zoology from its systematic side are often ignorant of anatomy, and those who know fossils are often weak in recent forms. ”

“ The philosophic study of entomology, however, requires much more than the mere collecting of specimens, and one of the most profitable and, at the same time, most fascinating phases of the study relates to the life-history and habits. In no branch of natural history are biologic studies more easily carried on, or the biologic facts more remarkable or interesting. ”

“ Geology, as the science of rocks is called, is no more difficult than botany or zoology, the sciences of plants and animals respectively. Botany and zoology, however, appeal in some degree to nearly all of us; we may learn a good deal concerning the structure of the cockroach with the help of our microscope and be interested in the revelations of our instrument, but to embark on a detailed course of the minute internal anatomy of insects would appeal to few of us. Animal or plant life may be studied piecemeal and enjoyed on account of its absorbing interest. ”

“ By specimen after specimen has every stage of growth and every degree of development been exemplified; and the Palæontologist has come as thoroughly to know the creatures, in consequence, under their various changes from youth to age, as if they had been his contemporaries, and had grown up under his eye. And had our existing species, vegetable and animal, been derived from other species of the earlier periods, it would have been equally possible to demonstrate, by a series of specimens, their relationship. Let us again instance the British shells. ”

“ In that interval the progress made in zoology and botany, both in augmenting the number of known animals and plants, and in studying their physiology and geographical distribution, and, above all, in examining and describing fossil species, is so vast, that the additions made to our knowledge probably exceed all that was previously known; and what Lamarck then foretold has come to pass; the more new forms have been multiplied, the less are we able to decide what we mean by a variety, and what by a species. ”

“ Enough has been said to show the many-sided nature of the science of Fossil Plants, and the wide range of the problems which the geologist or botanist may reasonably expect to solve, by means of trustworthy data afforded by scientific palaeobotanical methods. ”

“ The student in entomology, who wishes to attain a proper knowledge of the science, and indeed every microscopic observer, [218] desirous of availing himself of the discoveries of others, and of communicating intelligibly his own, will find it necessary to make himself conversant with the various classes, genera, &c. into which insects have been divided by Linnæus. Every system has its defects, and probably some may be found in that of this truly celebrated naturalist, but the purpose of science is answered by using those discriminations which are generally adopted. ”

“ First in order, as the most definite and unquestionable of all the results of paleontology, must be mentioned the immense extension and impulse given to botany, zoology, and comparative anatomy, by the investigation of fossil remains. Indeed, the mass of biological facts has been so greatly increased, and the range of biological speculation has been so vastly widened, by the researches of the geologist and paleontologist, that it is to be feared there are naturalists in existence who look upon geology as Brindley regarded rivers. ”

“ A single specimen, perhaps, of a dried plant, or a stuffed bird or quadruped; a shell, without the soft parts of the animal; an insect in one stage of its numerous transformations;—these are the scanty and imperfect data which the naturalist possesses. Such information may enable us to separate species which stand at a considerable distance from each other; but we have no right to expect any thing but difficulty and ambiguity, if we attempt, from such imperfect opportunities, to obtain distinctive marks for defining the characters of species which are closely related. ”

“ And if the chemist, by wide and extended views of his science in relation to geology, and mineralogy, should demonstrate, as the botanist from considerations of the peculiar features of the extinct flora has been led to suspect, that the atmosphere of this globe formerly contained more carbon and less oxygen than at present, then the anatomist might, à priori, have concluded that the highest classes of animals suited to the respiration of such a medium must have been the cold-blooded fishes and reptiles. ”

“ The most important part of our task will, therefore, be the critical examination of the three evidential sciences which we place at the base of all phylogenetic researches: paleontology, comparative anatomy, and ontogeny. We must cast a glance upon the advances made during the last ten years in these three auxiliaries of the science of the evolution of man and thus ascertain the degree of certainty to which a knowledge of his origin has attained by reason of these advances. ”

“ The freshness, the air of leisure, the enthusiasm of discovery that mark the work of these old writers have lessons for the modern professional zoologist, who at times feels burdened with the accumulated knowledge of a century and a half. From the end of the 18th century until the present day, it is only possible to enumerate the outstanding features in the progress of entomology. ”

“ We encourage them to take up the pursuit of botany, or chemistry, or geology; we bid them collect fossils, mosses, moths—go down even to postage-stamps; we are glad to find them engaged in observing the habits of the earthworm, and studying the life evolution of the daddy-longlegs, but never think of urging them to descend among our people and probe the deep mysteries of their existence. ”

“ I have always made it a rule of my conduct to promote Natural History by every method in my power. My cabinet has therefore been open to all those gentlemen, from whatever part of the world they came, who made Entomology their study. ”

“ It has already been indicated that ecology bears the closest of relations to morphology and histology on the one side, and to physiology on the other—that it is, indeed, nothing but a rational field physiology, which regards form and function as inseparable phenomena. The closeness with which it touches plant pathology follows directly from this, as pathology is nothing more than abnormal form and functioning. Experimental work in ecology is purely a study of evolution, and the facts of the latter are the materials with which taxonomy deals. ”