412 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



dd Prolegs, when present, on more than one abdominal segment; if 

 present on the last segment, then not armed with single or double 

 claws ; often entirely wanting 

 e With five pairs of prolegs, and with no spiracles at the apex of the 



abdomen - (moths) Lepidoptera 



ee Generally without prolegs ; never with fi.ve pairs of them; usually 

 with terminal spiracles ; long, lateral filaments often present on 



the abdominal segments (beetles) Coleoptera 



bb Without jointed thoracic legs ; with abdominal prolegs, or entirely legless ; 

 in the more degenerate forms, the head is reduced and retracted within 

 the pointed apex of the thorax, no appendages of the imago are visible, 

 and the pupa is formed within the contracted and hardened larval skin 



(flies, etc.) Diptera 



Those orders, on which some life history work was done at our station, 

 are severally discussed below. That some of these, notably the Colepp- 

 tera and the Diptera, were slighted, is only too apparent, and no one 

 will be so regretful as we are that no more time could be given to the 

 study of these; but the other orders treated seemed to be in more press- 

 ing need of study; and we always had more life history material avail- 

 able than could be attended to by two pairs of hands. A few random 

 notes on the representatives of those orders which received from us 

 no study whatever, will be found grouped together under a final heading. 



Order PLECOPTERA 



The stone flies are all aquatic. They frequent rapid streams, and are 

 most abundant in those places where the water dashes over heaps of 

 broken, half submerged rocks. In summer one may often see in such 

 places the projecting top of a rock decorated with the empty skins which 

 the adult stone flies left behind when they left the water and acquired 

 wings. To find the nymphs one need but lift a stone from the water 

 quickly, turn it over and look at it. The flat^ closely clinging nymphs 

 will be seen with their legs at full stretch and their claws gripping the 

 rock, or running from one depression to another, seeking to hide. 



The nymphs are little known. In this country they have received 

 hardly any attention, which is surprising, considering that they are so 

 easy to collect and to rear, and that they live in places in general so 

 attractive to us. The good angler who has the blood of a naturalist in 

 him is Hkely to know the species of stone flies, both nymphs and adults, 

 better than does the average professional entomologist. The systematic 

 study of the order is little advanced beyond the point where Pictet left it 

 60 years ago^: his work is still the best textbook of the group to be had. 



1 Hlstorle naturelle des neuropteres: perlides. Paris 1841. 



