AQUATIC INSECTS IN NEW 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 

 Eeed and Hankinson, I have studied the food of the 25 brook 

 trout taken in Bone pond at Saranac Inn, as detailed in my 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 may prove of high economic importance in water 

 culture. 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 Epiphragma fasci- 

 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 

 amphibious 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 

 water 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- 



