Editorial

Abstract

"What's the use of [animals] having names" the Gnat said "if they won't answer to them?". "No use to them" said Alice "but it's useful to the people who name them I suppose. If not why do things have names at all?" "I can't say" the Gnat replied.
From Alice through the Looking Glass. Lewis Carroll.

I first encountered this quotation as a question in Part II of the Natural Sciences Tripos (Zoology) in Cambridge in 1963. On reflection my answer was probably pretty naïve, but this was understandable at a time when the Zoology Department was pioneering experimental physiology. Names didn't matter so much, when most entomological researchers studied the cockroach, the blowfly or the blood-sucking bug Rhodnius. At that time, if there were pests, then DDT would fix them. In post-war Britain, no-one cared overmuch about insect pests anyway. Apples were usually host to codling moth caterpillars, cabbages were generally worked over by pierid larvae, and moths and beetles had an uncanny knack of finding stored flour and biscuits. Losses to pests were substantial but tolerated in a diverse economy. The only serious pest in Britain then was the Colorado beetle, a pest of potatoes, a picture of which appeared on every public notice board with an exhortation to find and report.