384 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Fart I 

 INTRODUCTORY 



THE UNDERTAKING, LOCATION, OBJECTS, METHODS AND RESULTS 



" To collect and study the habits of aquatic insects, paying special 

 attention to the conditions necessary for the existence of the various 

 species, their relative value as food for fishes, the relations of the forms 

 to each other, and their life histories": such were the instructions under 

 which I went to Saranac Inn, to take charge of the opening session of 

 the entomologic field station. Arrangements had been previously made 

 with state entomologist Dr E. P. Felt, that the session should extend from 

 June 15 to August 20. I arrived at Saranac Inn on the evening of June 

 12, and at once began looking the ground over. Dr Felt came on the 

 14th, and spent the day with me canvassing the situations to be studied. 

 My assistant, Cornelius Betten, arrived on the 15th, and the regular work 

 of the session was at once begun, to be continued without cessation to the 

 date of closing. 



Through the courtesy of the New York state fisheries, game and forest 

 commission the station was furnished with working quarters in the hatch- 

 ery building, and was allowed the use of parts of the hatchery equipment, 

 not then otherwise needed. There were three very considerable advan- 

 tages to our work in this arrangement : i) the use of several hatching 

 troughs with their continuous supply of well aerated water for insect 

 breedings, 2) the use of a carpenter's bench and tools for the construc- 

 tion of special breeding cages, 3) the use of a boat for collecting. 



We were soon supplied with a special equipment for the collecting and 

 rearing of aquatic insects, that was excellently adapted to our needs, and 

 without which the work hereinafter recorded could not have been done. 

 Our sincere thanks are due Dr Felt for his care in providing exactly the 

 apparatus asked for. Save for the first 10 days, during which we were 

 unable to find living quarters within 2 miles of our field of operations, we 

 had the still farther great advantage of close proximity to good collect- 

 ing grounds. 



The season was one of excessive rainfall. The first week of the session 

 and the last one were comparatively dry; but, for the remainder, it was 

 raining more than a third of the time. Thus collecting was greatly inter- 

 fered with, sweeping of vegetation was almost prevented, trap lanterns were 

 flooded night after night and their catch spoiled, and regularity in field 

 operations was made impracticable. 



The routine work of the station consisted in collecting and studying 

 aquatic insects in all their stages of development, in conducting feeding 



