1898.] MICB-OSCOPICAL JOUKNAL. 125 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 



BY L. A. WILLSON, 



CI.EVELAND, OHIO. 



Cicada tredeOEM. — This insect is now visiting the 

 Mississippi Valley. It is a well marked variety of Cicada 

 septendecem, or so-called Seventeen Year Locust or Peri- 

 odical Cicada. The insect now seen is a thirteen year 

 Cicada. It lives thirteen years underground in the lar- 

 val and pupal stage and then as a perfect insect emerges 

 into sunlight. Entomologists recognize several well-de- 

 fined hroods of this strange insect, the present brood be- 

 ing called No. VII. This brood last appeared in 1885. 

 The brood in question ranges from Southern Mississippi 

 and Northern Louisiana up along the river through Ten- 

 nesee, Southern Kentucky into wSouthern Illinois, with 

 quite a patch in Missouri. A fine treatise on this insect 

 with illustrations is contained in the U. S. Agricultural 

 Report for 1885 on page 233 et. seq.,and illustrated page 

 347 et. seq. 



A White-Fish's Stomach. — The contents will be found 

 to be almost exclusively composed of crushed remains 

 of microscopic crustaceans, principally of Cyclops and 

 Lychnis. What the cyclops lacks in size and weight it 

 makes up in numbers. Should one female lay ten eggs 

 at a time in three months she will lay eight times, so 

 that at the end of a year her descendants would equal 

 4,442,189,120. If we calculate that one cubic inch will 

 contain ten millions, then the progeny of a single female 

 from January to December will amount to 444 cubic 

 inches of solid food, as much as a single fish could con- 

 sume. 



Bazzania.— This is a genius of liver or scale mosses. 

 The genus has two species in this country — trilobata and 

 deflexa. The first species is found in wet woods and 

 the second on rocks. They are pretty and easy to exam- 



