92 Thirty-second Report on the State Museum, 



remains of a fish ; in the fifth, one hundred and eighty-six cases, and the flower 

 of a graminaceous plant ; in the sixth, one hundred and fifteen cases, a small 

 caterpillar, a number of fish-eggs, and one-half of a small fish. The cases of 

 PhryganidcB were found in all the stomachs, and also in the entrails ; in one, 

 the intestinal canal, as far as the anus, was completely stuffed with the cases." 



Similar examinations of the stomachs of the brook-trout (8. fontir talis) made 

 in this country have shown the presence of numerous Phryganid larvae, with 

 the cases of various species of both slight and strong construction. 



The contents of the stomachs of some white-fish, examined by Prof. S. I. 

 Smith, gave the following insect remains : Chironomus larvae and pupae ; the 

 imagos of two species of Diptera ; larvae and pupae of Ephemeridce ; larvae, 

 pupae and subimagos of Hyprophsyche and of another Phryganid ; the legs and 

 scales of a Lepidopterous insect. 



In an excellent paper " On the Benefit and Damage of the Trichoptera' 1 

 (a division of the Neuroptera including the Phryganidw), contributed to the 

 Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung, 1848, Vol. ix, pp. 50-52, by Dr. Kolenat, 

 the writer asserts that Phryganids are a first-class food for fishes. Not only 

 are they very desirable for food, but they are valuable also as indicating the 

 character of the water — the nature of their cases indicating clearly the chemical 

 composition of the water, and its adaptation to fish-culture. No pond or stream 

 should ever be selected for pisciculture, unless the Phryganidce are abundant 

 in them. 



With the above attestations to the high character of insect food for the use 

 of fishes, and in consideration of a very prevalent belief that many insects were 

 specially created to serve as fish-food, it will be unnecessary to multiply details, 

 at the present, of the peculiar fondness of fishes for this diet, or of certain species 

 for particular classes of insects. It may suffice to say, that the entomologist can 

 corroborate the statement of Sir Humphry Davy (loc. cit., p. 159), — " there is 

 hardly any insect that flies, including the wasp, the hornet, the bee and the 

 butterfly, that does not become, at some time, the prey of fishes." 



MOLLUSCA AS POOD FOR FISHES. 



The food of the Lake sturgeon, Acipenser rubicundus Lesu., consists almost 

 entirely of the shell-fish of the lakes, principally Gasteropods — the thinner 

 shelled kinds of the genera Physa, Planorbis and Valvata, being found broken 

 in the stomachs, while Limn&a and Melantho remain whole (J. W. Milner). 

 At iSand Island, Lake Superior, a specimen contained a few bones of some fish 

 and numerous shells, among which were the following : Valvata tricarinata, V. 

 sincera, Limnaia catascopium, Physa sp. f, Planorbis bicarinatus and Sphce- 

 rium striatinum (S.I. Smith). 



The stomachs of some white-fish from Sault Sainte Marie contained scarcely 

 anything but small shells. Among these, Valvata tricarinata, V. sincera, Am- 

 nicola generosa, A. pallida (?), Qyraulus parvus, and a species of Lymncea 

 were in abundance ; there were fewer specimens of Goniabasis livescens, Physa 

 vinosa (?), Sphcerium striatinum and Pisidium compressum (S. I. Smith). 



I have no accessible data showing the extent to which the trout, salmon trout 

 and other of our fresh-water fishes, feed upon the Mollusca, but there is every 

 reason to believe that they form a portion of the food of many of the species, 

 and that the molluscan ova are readily eaten by their young. 



A large number of our salt-water fishes are recorded by Prof. Verrill as 

 feeding on Mollusca — as, for example, the porgee, black-fish, cod (twenty-six 

 species of shells are mentioned as having been found in its stomach), haddock, 



