Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1894 [PAGE 46]

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PROCEEDINGS OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES

47

We also experimented last year with the fruit bark beetle, the white grubs, and the Hessian fly, with a view of clearing up doubtful points in the life history of each; and with respect to the species last mentioned, we undertook, at t h e request of the United States Entomologist, t h e introduction of one of its foreign parasites into the wheat fields of Illinois. A very large amount of entomological breeding-cage work has been done by us in the two years just past, but of a kind which it is impossible to summarize. Something of the amount of general work done in entomology may be inferred from the fact t h a t we have added to t h e pinned collections fully 20,000 specimens, and to t h e "biological" series, t h a t illustrating the life histories and habits of Illinois insects, 2,700 bottles and vials.

PUBLICATIONS.

The regular publications of t h e Laboratory and entomologist's office during the past two years have been less numerous t h a n usual; but the matter now in press and far advanced in printing is, on the other hand* unusually important. My sixth report as state entomologist, the seventeenth of the entire series, was printed in 1891. I t contaius 105 pages and seven plates, three of which are colored, with an appendix of 36 pages and one plate. One of the articles of this report was issued separately in advance, as a bulletin of the office. My seventh report is now in course of preparation. A second edition of the first volume of our report on the ornithology of the State, authorized by the legislature at its last session, has been long delayed, owing to difficulties concerning the supply of paper. These have been met, however, by the state board of contracts, and t h e printing from our stereotyped plates is in progress at the time of writing. This volume stops with t h e Columbidse, but a continuation and completion of this work on the systematic ornithology of the State has also been printed, and is now nearly ready for distribution as a first part of t h e second volume of t h e zoological series of the Natural History Survey. Three articles have been published as bulletins of the Laboratory: one by Professor Weed on a plant louse species, one by Professor Gillette on new gall flies in the Laboratory collections, and one by myself on insect bacteria. We have in press in this series a full descriptive monograph of the reptiles and amphibians of t h e State, by Professor Garman (173 pages and seven plates), now nearly ready for distribution, and a similarly exhaustive account, by Dr. F. W. Goding, of the Illlinois species of one of t h e families of true bugs (Membracidas). Besides these regular publications we have prepared and printed, in connection with the distribution of collections to be referred to later, two lists, one of duplicate insects in t h e collection of t h e Laboratory (nineteen pages), and one a list of economic species for public schools (thirteen pages). The following is a list of papers by the Laboratory force, published during t h e two years, t h e work for which has been done a t t h e Laboratory. Forbes, S. A.—Synopsis of Recent Work with Arsenical Insecticides. (Trans. 111. State Hort. Soc, 1889, p. 310.) On a Bacterial Insect Disease. (North American Practitioner, 1891, p . 401; Am. Monthly Micr. Journ, 1891, p. 246.) Bacteria Normal to Digestive Organs of Hemiptera. (Bull. 111. State Lab. Nat. Hist., iv, p. 1.) On Some Lake Superior Entomostraca. (Rep. U. S. Fish Comm., 1887, p. 701.)