Entomological Society of Washington

The Entomological Society in Washington commenced on February 29, 1884, on the initiative of three entomologists worked at the US Department of Agriculture: Charles Valentine Riley, Eugene Amandus Schwartz and Leland Ossian Howard. The first meeting was held at at Riley’s house in Washington, DC. Meetings were then held regularly from 1884 with several locations being used when it became inappropriate to hold meetings in the homes of Church members, Locations included the Washington Sengerbund Hall, the Space Club, and the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History. The Society's official seal was adopted at a meeting on November 2, 1893, and included an insect - the winged male Rheumatobates rileyi Bergroth (Hemiptera, Gerridae), and an ostrich of about 7 mm in length. The Society's first members included Charles Valentine Riley, Nathan Banks, Eugene Amandus Schwartz, August Busk, Leland Ossian Howard, Adam Jew Beving, Charles Henry Tyler Townsend, George Marx, Lawrence Bruner, Clara Laroute Saute, Frederick Knab, Albert Kobele, amongst others. Louise M. Russell became the first woman president of the Society in 1966.