Author Description

Excerpt from Applied Entomology If one can judge from the answers to about fifty letters of inquiry sent to teachers of Entomology in colleges in the United States, the teaching of Entomology in this country at the present time is in a rather chaotic condition. Very few of the answers received show much in harmony in subject matter, methods of presentation, or even the line of training the students should receive by a course in the subject. The author believes that in agricultural colleges at least, two distinct groups of students need a knowledge in Entomology, and rather early in their course. One of these groups is composed of students who will never specialize in the subject but need it as part of an agricultural education, and particularly as a tool which they can use wherever insects are related to their special lines of work. They are not particularly interested in such details as the number of antennal segments in insects, the number of branches of the radial vein, or how important a pest on pigweed the insect is: they do not expect to identify insects beyond the order or family at most, relying on specialists available at the State Experiment Stations for such information. But they do desire a general knowledge of the broad outlines of the subject, and a rather complete knowledge of, and if possible, the ability to recognize particularly import ant insect pests they are liable to meet in the course of their work. The other group consists of those who expect to specialize in the subject, becoming professional entomologists. Their needs will, of course, be different from those of the other group, but an introductory survey such as will meet the requirements of the rest will give the members of this group an excellent foundation for further and more detailed work. The present book is therefore Offered as a classroom text for an introductory course in the subject, which shall give a general idea of insects, their structure, life histories, and habits,