shufeldt] 



COMMON FORMS OF ANIMAL LIFE 



341 



I invited special attention to this in a paper I read, sometime 

 since, at a meeting of the Aquarium Society of Washington, on the 

 aquatic insects of the District of Columbia. Upon reading some 

 of the chapters in Dr. L. O. Howard's most useful volume, "The 

 Insect Book," one is surprised at the number of species requiring 

 more or less extended study. 

 For example, speaking of 

 such common forms as 

 the dragon -flies, he says: 

 "There is still some doubt 

 as to the exact method by 

 which they begin to breathe 

 air after leaving the water, 

 and it is a subject which will 

 bear much further investiga- 

 tion." Again, under his 

 history of those very inter- 

 esting and most abundant 

 species the larvae of the cad- 

 dis-flies, he remarks: "As 

 common as are the caddis- 

 worms, and as often as they 

 have been watched in 

 streams and in aquaria, not 

 a single full life history has 

 been recorded in this coun- 

 try, and a fascinating field 

 for original investigation is 

 therefore open to the first 

 comer. ' ' I may say here that 

 simply hundreds of our most 

 abundant insects stand in 

 the same case. Indeed it 

 would be well were more 



people to know further of the life histories of the commonest 

 species of insects that occur daily under their very eyes in the 

 homes all over the country. Take for example the common 

 "thousand-legs"-— it has but fifteen pairs by the way. How few 

 there are that know of the value of this particular insect! Last 

 summer I caught in my dining-room a particularly handsome 



A "thousand-legs," Scidigera forceps, 

 frequently found in our homes. 



