1895.] Entomology. 497 
than the Dragonflies; hence, none appeal more strongly to the imagina- 
tion. Their graceful forms, brilliant colors, and arrow-like flight at 
once arrest attention and hold the interest ; it is, therefore, not supris- 
ing that they have received so many and such poetic names. It has 
been said that “some of these names testify to the wide-spread, but 
quite unfounded, belief in the harmfulness of these creatures to man.” 
The writer recalls at least one grown person who truly believed they 
were harmful. This was a school teacher, who impressed upon him, 
and others of her charge, that the devil’s darning-needles about the 
‘old swimmin’ hole’ were dangerous, and that they were quite deter- 
mined to sew up the ears of truants who sought the limpid waters and 
grass-covered banks of the millrace, rather than the hard and strict 
ways of the prosy school-room. This is the one ‘fact’ of Natural 
History he remembers to have been taught him in the ‘district’ 
school.” 
A Unique Journal.—The Entomological Society of the University 
of California has recently begun the publication of The Entomologists 
Daily Post Card, especially devoted to the insects of California and 
adjacent states. It contains synopses, bibliographical references and 
many useful notes. The subscription price is $2.00 a year, which may 
be sent to C. W. Woodworth, Berkeley, California. 
Loss by Fire.—We regret to learn from Prof. C. H. Tyler Town- 
send, now stationed at Brownsville, Texas, that he recently lost by the 
burning of a warehouse at Las Cruces, New Mexico, his valuable ento- 
mological library which was especiallly rich in Dipterology. Mr. 
Townsend would be glad to receive separates of papers from entomo- 
logists, who we are sure will willingly help to replace his library. 
Male Reproductive Organs of Beetles.—Dr. K. Escherich 
describes’ the genital system in the males of Carabus, Blaps, and Hy- 
drophilus. The Carabidæ illustrate the simplest state; a simple 
blind tube on each side produces spermatozoa, stores the elements and 
secretes mucus; each tube opens into a somewhat stronger duct, and 
the two ducts unite in a common ejaculatory canal. The terminal por- 
tion in this case is lined. with chitin, and is, therefore, ectodermic, not 
the result of the confluence of the mesodermic vasa deferentia. The 
region corresponding to testes, vasa deferentia, and seminal vesicle are 
3 Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool. LVII, 620-41. 
