AQUATIC INSECTS IX XEW YORK STATE 203 



The results of our work in so far as made ready for publica- 

 tion appear in the following pages. With the aid of Messrs 

 Reed and Haukiuson, I have studied the food of the 25 brook 

 trout taken in Bone pond at Saranac Inn. as detailed in mj- first 

 report [N, Y. State Mus. Bui. 47, p. 396], and now report on it. 

 The food of these trout was almost wholly insects, and there 

 was found such a preponderance of a single species of gnat larva 

 (family Chironomidae, order Diptera) in the food, as indicates 

 that that species ma^'jjrove of high economic importance in water 

 <?ulture. In another brief article I have brought together the 

 -descriptions of a few dipterous larvae of unusual types. Most 

 interesting, perhaps, is the larva of E p i p h r a g m a f a s c i - 

 p e n n i s , a burrower in fallen willow and buttonbush stems, 

 lying on the banks of temporary ponds; a larva of enforced 

 iimphibious habits^ its residence sometimes submerged, some- 

 times exposed; and it has a mode of respiration suited to 

 either condition. My chief contribution to this bulletin is the 

 •description of the life histories and habits of the damsel flies 

 (order Odonata, suborder Zygoptera). I have been able to des- 

 cribe the nymphs of all our 10 genera and of 23 of our 42 known 

 species, all these descriptions being new. 



Mr MacGillivray has prepared a table of families of coleop- 

 terous larvae in general that will be of great assistance to stu- 

 dents of this order. His careful study of the respiratory ap- 

 paratus of the Donacia larva solves the old, troublesome prob- 

 lem as to how that animal, dweller on the submerged roots of 

 w^ater plants, gets its air. His study of Donacia is complete 

 for all species of the world fauna now known as larvae, and a 

 considerable proportion of them are now described for the first 

 time. 



Mr Johannsen introduces his study of the dipterous families, 

 Blepharoceridae, Simuliidae, Dixidae, Culicidae and Chironom- 

 idae, with a table of families of nematocerous diptera. His 

 account of the Simuliidae is a monograph of the species of the 

 eastern United States in all stages of their development. In 

 the Dixidae he gives a key to our species (imagos) and offers the 

 first life history written for an American species. His treat- 



