The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1904-03-18

| the office. chiefly in furnishing inform;
ton on insects submitted for examine
ton. to publish bulletins on entomolc
gical subjects, and to prepare colleC
tons OF injurious and beneficial insec,
for the use OF future workers. In til
work the resident cntomologists coul
be assisted by the travelling members c
the Division in the intervals betwee
their journeys. and during such inter
walls the resident members would hav
an opportunity to make tour of in
spection of the various islands with
view TO ascertaining what beneficial ii,
sects were chiefly needed in vario,,
localities. 1t is quite clear that to &c
complsh this work the Division is by N
means over large; the handling an,
rearing OF beneficial insects alone 70
purposes of distribution being almos
more than work enough for one man
and sometimes for months together
owing to the large amount of materia
on hand, the extreme care necessary
both in the actual handling of the
creatures, and i'll guarding against the
escape of some species that might be
prejudicial (not only to the work in
hand. but also perhaps to work already
accomplished will absorb most OF the
time of the two resident members
| Quite apart from this the ordinary work
of the office is considerable as informa-
ton is given on any insects. beneficial
or injurious, submitted to the entomolo-
| gist
Il may state in passing that recently
i'll addition to the parasites sent from
California by the Superintendent of the
Division, to be tried on cane leaf-hopper,
which require the most careful atten-
ton, we have had on hand at one time
thousands of the native parasite of the
leaf-hopper, and have in addition para
sites (from the Eastern States) for the
green leaf-hopper so injurious in many
localities to coffee, citrus, and many
forest trees To regularly supply so
large number OF living creatures with
clusion of some prcdaceous insect. which
in night might destroy the labor of
weeks. to make sure that the conditions
of moisture and temperature are suita
Bile for the species, most important
matter i'll this climate, all these require
much care and consideration.
1T is most necessary that good refer
ence collections should be made of the
various insects whether beneficial or in
furious. A slight step has been already
made in this direction but it must be
years before any adequate collection can
be got together This want of a collec-
ton is great need, SO that, when in
the case of manv important Hawaiian
insects, to identity these the entomolo-
gist has to hunt through mass of scat
tered literature, with often very I'M
satisfactory results, while in the case
of obscure foreign species, the difficult
ties are hardly less great sometimes
even greater, the country whence they
have been imported being a matter of
doubt Our distance from entomologiSts
OF other countries precludes the posi-
bility of getting assistance from them,
except after much delay, and to be of
any use an entomologist here must be
self-dependent Hardly less important
is it to form reference collections of
foreign insects injurious to important
agricultural industries of these islands,
for had we complete collections of this |
kind, we should know exactly what to
guard against when importations of
important plants are made, and new in
sect pests could be identified as they |
turn up. That new ones will turn up
no one can possibly doubt, for an in
sect may be (and is sometimes known |
to be) present for years in country |
before it becomes injurious. Also with |
these injurious insects should be col
lected where possible their natural enc
mics. SO that in the event of their occur
rapcn 1,oro ,No NAV l-rp,r ,ybera tp cool,
the latter OF course, such collection
could only be made by the travelling
as opportunity offered
while he was engaged in the still more
important work of collecting and for
warding beneficial insects, but certain
ly no opportunity should be lost OF &C
curing information of this nature.
From time to time as occasion de-
mands it is purposed to publish Bulle
tins on chronological subjects. For this
purpose it is absolutely necessary that
two series of Bulletins be issued, one
dealing with purely technical entomolo-
gy and the other with more general in
formation. The Bulletin already issued
on the leaf-hopper of the cane mostly
belongs to the latter class but in the
appendix is contained matter, which
properly belongs to technical bulle-
tin and the publication of such matter
in mixed form is most inadvisable
and only could &c excused by the ur
gent and immediate need of that Bulle
Iin
Owing to the great mass of entomo-
logical literature published yearly. it is
necessary that all papers of Importance
should be duly recorded annually and it
greatly facilitates the work of the re-
corder that descriptions of species and
similar technical matter, should be kept
apart from general chronological in
formation, and both from matters which
nave nothing whatever to do with either
branch.
For information of relatively small
md momentary value the Press Bulle-
ins are excellent, the daily papers being
he quickest and best means of giving
to the general public
while a Bulletin of the class con-
'eying general information can be writ