XXXli, '21] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 31 



dragonflies and two of damselflies arc treated, and figures and descrip- 

 tions arc given of the egg, the newly hatched nymph and of its detached 

 labiuin ; data on incubation and behavior accompany some of the de- 

 scriptions. The paper concludes with an annotated list of the 64 

 species known to occur near the Biological Laboratory. 



The bibliography is less extensive in scope than the paper itself. 

 There is a brief account of the masticatory structures of the nymphal 

 gizzard, but with no mention of the extensive work of Ris and others 

 upon these structures. There is an extended account of mouth parts, 

 both nymphal and adult, but without mention of Miss Butler's com- 

 prehensive work upon these and their development. 



Since the argument in favor of dragonflies as of value in pond 

 culture is based mainly on food relations, it is regrettable that one 

 serious error mars both the statement of facts and the argument. 

 This is the oft repeated and almost traditional error of including water 

 boatmen among the enemies of fishes. Hungerford's studies published 

 in Volume 25 of the Journal of the Ne^v York Entomological Society 

 (1917), showed clearly that corixids are not predatory at all, but feed 

 on algae and disintegrating plant residue. 



This report is more a report of investigation and less an essay than 

 was the Larnborn volume of 1890; but one may admit all the facts it 

 presents without being able to concede that anima's like Odonata, 

 almost wholly carnivorous, and in part cannibals, are likely to prove 

 a better source o)' animal food for fishes than are such herbivores as 

 scuds, mayflies and midges, whose great function in life is that of 

 turning grass into flesh. The question as to what forms may best be 

 increased artificially for providing fishes with suitable animal food, 

 will doubtless be settled eventually by actual production of some of 

 them, and not by argument. If this work of Professor Wilson's paves 

 the way for some sustained intensive rearing operations on particular 

 species under controlled conditions at the Fairport Laboratory or else- 

 where, we may eventually have some knowledge of their real economic 

 value. J. G. NEEDHAM. 



Doings of Societies. 



The American Entomological Society. 



Meeting of June 9th. 1919, in the hall of The Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, fourteen persons present, Pres. Dr. Henry Skinner presiding. 

 Dr. Calvert moved the Society endorse the movement for the 

 exclusive use of the metric system. Seconded and carried. 



Lepidoptera. Mr. Coxey exhibited a specimen of I'apitio zceiskci 

 C. Ribbe, from the Aroa River, New Guinea, collected at an elevation 

 of 8000 feet. This was described in Inscctcn Rorsc. xviii, 1900. The 

 allied species from the A. N. S. Collection were also shown. 



