60 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



perhaps very different. As it was the essayists— not having had time to prosecute experi- 

 ments in the artificial culture of the Odonata, were obliged to draw conclusions from what 

 iiad been done by others in that way (which was almost nothing) or from their own 

 imagination — without data, both as to the possibilities of artificial multiplication of the 

 dragon-fly and the effect that such would have on the mosquito and house-fly. 



Time will not permit giving even a short account of the other essays ; sutfice it to 

 say, all the important scientific knowledge on the subject up to the year 1890 has been 

 reproduced in concise and accurate form, and it must be admitted — even if nothing more is 

 done as a result of this initial step— that the collection of all the scientific knowledge on 

 the subject in an easily accessible form is well worth the time and outlay ; and it is 

 not too much to say that Dr. Lamborn has not only assumed a neglected function of the 

 state and thus shown the Government an example in this philanthropic movement, but he 

 has placed science and humanity under an obligation. 



Sufficient has been produced to show that the dragon-fly is the most beneficial insect 

 at least in the order to which it belongs, and deserving of a foremost rank among the 

 insect friends of man. 



THE SONG OF THYREONOTUS. 

 By William T. Davis, Staten Island, N. Y. 



Mr. Samuel H. Scudder, in the Report of the Ontario Entomological Society for 1892, 

 gives an interesting account of the " Songs of Our Grasshoppers and Crickets," and kindly 

 permits the stridulations of a number of Staten Island insects to be heard mid the general 

 medley. There is, however, an addition songster to be added to this list, as appears from 

 the following. 



On the 26th of last June I heard in a moist pasture, on the north shore of the Island, 

 a sti'idulation that was unknown to me. It much resembled that produced by Orchelimum 

 vulgare, with the preliminary zip, zi[), omitted. It was a continuous z e e e, with an 

 occasional short ik, caused by the insect gettiug its wing-covers ready for action after a 

 period of silence. It was too early for Orchelimum vulgare by about a week ; at least I 

 have never heard one on the Island before the fourth of July ; so in the present instance 

 I made careful search for the musician. In due time I discovered, in a tussock of rank 

 swamp grass, the brown songster perched on a de id leaf, and receiving the evidently wel- 

 come rays from the afternoon sun. It was Thyreonotus pachymems, and in the swampy 

 field about me I heard others of its kind, so that this individual was only one of a con- 

 siderable colony. 



A failure to make proper use of his legs (the wings are abortive) resulted in the 

 transfer of Thyreonotus from the tussock to a tin can. At home I made a bowery for 

 him in a larger tin can covered with netting, into which was introduced a branch of the 

 coriaceous leaved post oak, and when the leaves dried, there were innumerable nooks 

 and crannies wherein to hide. Usually, however, the insect did not hide at all, but 

 perched himself on one of the topmost leaves and there waved his antennae after the 

 manner of all long-horned Orthoptera. Starting with raspberries, he had the rest of the 

 fruits in their season, including watermelon, of which he showed marked appreciation. If 

 I offered him a raspberry, and then gradually drew it away, he would follow in the direc- 

 tion of the departing fruit and would finally eat it from my hand. 



As the bowery whs kept in my bed room, I had the full benefit of the songs of its. 

 occupant, and was often awakened in the night by his sudden, alarm-like outburst of 

 melody. He stridulated with unabated zeal to the first of August, when I noticed that his 

 energies were lagging — he seemed to be much less sprightly. Finally his song, instead of 

 filling the room, was but a faint sound, and I was obliged to place my ear close to the 

 tin can. This wasnearing the end, which came either on the tenth or eleventh of Septem- 

 ber, I cannot say which, for the bowery was not disturbed until its occupant had been 

 missing from the upper leaves for several diys. 



