BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES PISH COMMISSION. 311 



IOO. M III IC-ltl I I I I s IMMlKOVIMi CARP. 



By Prof. C. V. RILEY. 



The large water insect which, according to the account of Mr. (i. \Y. 

 Peters, Caldwell, Sumner County, Kansas,* attacks and kills young 

 carp is evidently some species of Gi/bister or Dytiscus of the coleopterous 

 family Dytiscidce. These carnivorous water- beetles occasionally abound 

 in certain localities and arc then a serious drawback to successful fish- 

 culture. Moreover, since the German carp is a sluggish fish, it is much 

 more exposed to the attacks of these beetles than most other kinds of 

 fish. Unfortunately there is no way of poisoning the beetles and their 

 still more voracious larvae without at the same time destroying the fish, 

 and all that can be done is to catch the beetles by means of a net shaped 

 like a common butterfly-net and attached to the end of a bamboo pole. 

 With a little practice many beetles may thus be captured within a short 

 time, and by continuing this eflort throughout the year the pest may be 

 kept in check. 



Washington, D. C, March 31, 1885. 



101 — EDIBLE xllll [-limr FOUND NEAR CUBA. 



By BOBT. E. C. STEARNS. 



[In reply to a letter of Mr. P. Benjamin, of Fulton Market, New York City, December 



27, 1884.] 



I have made inquiry and have learned only this, " That oysters of fair 

 quality are rather abundant in the waters about Santiago, Cuba." The 

 animal or soft portion of many of the conch shells, so-called, is eaten 

 Sbt various places by the negroes and others both in Florida and else- 

 where in the Antillean-Caribbean region; but such gasteropod forms, 

 while locally of some business importance, can hardly be so regarded 

 in a broad commercial sense. Of the acephalans, or bivalves, the tel- 

 lins and cockles of the cooler waters, at various places in the North 

 Pacific and North Atlantic, are not only edible but often excellent in 

 ■quality. There are species belonging to these groups within the region 

 named, and of good merchantable size, but I am unable r<> specify any 

 locality where they exist in such numbers as to afford a reasonable basis 



*Mr. Peters wrote : "I received last fall 20 carp in good condition, and they have 

 wintered well. Now as spring has come there is a big bag, shaped like a turtle, that 

 is catching and killing my carp. There will seven or eight of these bags attack a 

 carp at once and stick to him till they eat him up alive. They can fly. They have 

 two legs that they use to swim as a hoy uses his arms. They are always in motion. 

 Now I want to know how to get rid of them." 



