136 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [April, '04 



After sending the copy of the first part of these Suggestions 

 to the Editors, I received from the American Entomological Com- 

 pany a sample card of American-made steel, black japanned, nee- 

 dle-pointed pins, which are far superior in finish, stiffness and 

 springiness to any European-made pin I have ever seen. No. oo 

 is a trifle less in diameter than the No. i Kirby, which latter is 

 about the thickness of No. o. I can heartily endorse these new 

 pins; the best grade are to be known as " No. 210 Special 

 double japanned." The only criticism to be made is that the 

 heads are a separate piece ; but this may be remedied if we all 

 bring pressure to bear on the makers and insist on a head that 

 cannot come off. 



(To be continued). 



NOTE ON DURATION OF LARVAL STAGE OF OooNATA. During the late 

 summer of 1902 the water in Green's rock quarry dried completely up, 

 and remained so for at least two months. Unfortunately, I did not notice 

 the dates when the pool dried and when it filled up again. On July 22 

 and August 10, 1903, 1 found in the quarry exuviae of recently transformed 

 Anax junius\ on September 5, 1903, of Tramea Carolina ; on August 

 10, of Lestes forcipatus ; on August 10 and 18, of Pachydipla.v longipen- 

 nis ; thus apparently showing that these four species had in this case com- 

 pleted their transformations in less than six months. The quarry had not 

 any water in it in the previous fall before late November at the earliest ; 

 thus the eggs of these species must have apparently been deposited in 

 the spring of 1903. C. S. BRIMLEY, Raleigh, N. C. 



INTERNAL PARASITES OF THE DUCK. The writer spent the summer 

 of 1903 upon a farm in the northwestern part of Connecticut. In the 

 latter part of July it was noticed that a large Pekin drake began to look 

 emaciated and sickly. All efforts to bring it back to health failed, and a 

 week or so later it died. Postmortem examination revealed a large num- 

 ber of maggots feeding upon the flesh in the posterior part of the abdo- 

 men. Apparently the adult flies had deposited their eggs in or near the 

 anus of the drake, and upon emerging the young larva? had worked their 

 way into the surrounding flesh. A number of the maggots were allowed 

 to complete their life-history in confinement. This was accomplished in 

 about two weeks. Some of the adult flies were identified by Mr. D. W. 

 Coquillett, of the United States National Museum at Washington, who 

 found that there were two species belonging to different genera, Phonnia 

 regina Meigen and Lucilia c&sar Linne. By far the greater number 

 were of the former species. No differences were noticed in the larvae ; 

 but this is not strange, as little attention was given to them until the 

 images had emerged. 



I can find no record of similar parasitism of birds. A. VINCENT 

 OSMUN, Amherst, Mass. 



