Insects, etc., of Caledonia Creek. 85 



The above family will undoubtedly be found very largely represented at Cal- 

 edonia — usually abounding in and about waters which have an abundant insect 

 fauna. It is quite desirable that full collections of them should be made during 

 the season when they occur most numerously — in the months of July and August. 

 In their larval and pupal forms, they are the terror of the inhabitants of the 

 water, and in their perfect form, they are the hawks and eagles of the insect 

 world, persistently chasing and devouring other smaller insects. Their habits, 

 in all their stages, are exceedingly interesting, but it would occupy too much 

 space to present them here. 



Phryganidce. — The second species, before referred to, of which many indivi- 

 duals were observed at Caledonia, alighting after short flights on the whitened, 

 dead Chara, strewing the shore of a pond, is Chilostigma coagulata Say MS. — • 

 the name in Say's handwriting being attached to a specimen in the Harris Col- 

 lection at Boston. It is mentioned in Hitchcock's Report, 2d edition, p. 582, and 

 by Dr. Hagen in Proc. Post. tioc. Nat. Hist., vol. xv, p. 296, as Platyphylas 

 coagulata. Dr. Hagen writes me farther in relation to it : " The genus Chil- 

 ostigma was established by McLachlan, in 1876, for a European species, C. 

 Sieboldii, which is nearly related to C. coagulata, differing by characters which 

 are probably only of specific value, viz.: the apical joint of the labial palpi in the 

 North American species, is egg-shaped ; the length of the joints of the maxillary 

 palpi of the female is slightly different in their proportions, and the areolus in 

 the interior wings is straight and unbroken. I would not deem it advisable, 

 for the present, to establish a new genus for the N. A. species, of which three 

 are described by Walker, as Limnephilus, and in the Synopsis of North 

 American Neuroptera as Enoicyla, because all have 1, 2, 2, spurs. The 

 species are : 



"1. C. coagulata Say. Dublin and Mt. Monadnox, N. H, 



"2. C. difficilis Walk. Mt. Monadnox, N. H. This species are much like 

 the first, but a little larger, and the male and female have different genital parts. 



" 3. C. prceterita Walk. Arctic America, Slave River. 



"4. C. interscisa Walk. = Phr. irrorata Fabr. (teste McLach.). Hudson's 

 Bay Territory. This species differs from the others by much more elongate wings. 



" Chilostigma is a northern, probably an Arctic genus. The species are 

 nearly the latest Neuroptera in their appearance in their imago state. Their 

 nymphae swim in the water in undergoing their last metamorphosis, when they 

 fall an easy prey to fishes." 



As C. coagulata has not, to the present, been described, a figure enlarged to 

 two diameters, is given of it. (Fig. 2, plate 5.) 



The Phryganidce, in many of their species, bear so strong a resemblance to 

 some of the moths of the Order of Lepidoptera, in the shape of their wings and 

 in the hairs with which they are overspread, that they are sometimes designated 

 by the name of water-moths. In their larval stage, passed in the water, they 

 are known as case-worms, or caddis-worms. They live in cases, which, by the 

 aid of a silk which they spin, they build about themselves, composed of various 

 substances, such as portions of leaves or stems of plants, pieces of wood or bark, 

 the shells of the smaller species of Helix, Planorbis, Limncea, etc., gravel, 

 fragments of stone, seeds of plants, and of almost any small body which may 

 occur in their locality.* 



*In two examples contained in the material recently received by me from Caledonia, the 

 larvae, which were of large size, with the object no doubt of avoiding the labor attending the 

 construction of a new case, necessitated by their growth, had availed themselves of the hollow 

 stem of some sileceous-coated aquatic plant of a suitable diameter (one-fourth inch), a section 

 of which two inches in length, afforded them a strong, agreeable, and easily transported habi- 

 tation. 



