April 23, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



369 



and is about three miles and a half by coach from 

 the Eastern railroad station in Gloucester. The 

 purpose of the laboratory is to afford opportunities 

 for the study of the development, anatomy, and 

 habits of common types of marine animals, under 

 suitable direction and advice. There will be no 

 attempt to give lectures or any stated courses of 

 instruction. The laboratory has been in operation 

 for four successive summers, and has fairly met 

 the wants of a number of students, teachers, and 

 investigators. Those who have had some experi- 

 ence in a laboratory, who have attended practical 

 lessons, or who have taught in the schools, are 

 sufficiently qualified to make use of this oppor- 

 tunity. The instruction and work of the labo- 

 ratory will be under the immediate care of Mr. B. 

 H. Van Vleck, assistant in the laboratory of the 

 Boston society of natural history, a gentleman 

 well known as a teacher, and who has also had 

 long experience in collecting and observing at 

 the seaside. Applications should be made imme- 

 diately, and can be addressed to Mr. B. H. Van 

 Vleck. 



— The Boston Transcript states that Mr. Alfred 

 Russell Wallace, the celebrated English naturalist, 

 who shares w r ith Darwin the honor of an inde- 

 pendent discovery of the law of ' the survival of 

 the fittest,' is coming to the United States on the 

 invitation of Mr. Augustus Lowell of Boston, to 

 deliver a course of eight lectures before the Lowell 

 institute, in that city, beginning in October. It 

 will be remembered that it w T as on a similar in- 

 vitation (from Mr. Lowell's father) that Profes- 

 sor Agassiz first came to America, in the autumn 

 of 1846. After completing his Lowell institute 

 course, Mr. Wallace will lecture in other cities, and 

 proposes to return to England in the spring of 

 1887. His subjects will be chosen from natural 

 history. 



— During the past week the occurrence of a 

 large number of insects of a formidable appear- 

 ance in Washington has attracted considerable at- 

 tention. The following account of their habits and 

 appearance is given by one of the entomologists 

 of the agricultural department : This large insect 

 of two inches and a half , or more, in length is 

 the Belostoma americanum of entomologists, and 

 belongs to the order Hemiptera, or true bugs. It 

 lives in ponds and sluggish streams during the 

 immature state, in which it has no wings, and is 

 full grown in fall, remaining in the ponds during 

 the winter. When, in the spring, the warm 

 weather awakens them, they come forth at dark, 

 often in immense numbers, and fly about : the 

 sexes mate, and they return to the ponds in 

 which the female deposits her eggs. They are 



strongly attracted by light, and especially by elec- 

 tric lamps, under which vast numbers often strew 

 the walks, and are crushed under foot. Their 

 sudden appearance often creates alarm ; and dur- 

 ing the past week or two, specimens have been 

 received from various parts of North Carolina 

 and other southern states, the writers often in 

 evident fear of damage from this insect invasion. 

 But they are perfectly harmless. They are, it is 

 true, able to inflict a very painful bite, for they 

 are provided with a short, sharp beak ; but they 

 never do so voluntarily, and they do not live on 

 any thing in the way of vegetable matter outside 

 of the water. They are carnivorous, feeding 

 principally on less powerful w r ater-insects, and 

 not despising an occasional fish, frog, or other bit 

 of flesh that may come in their way. They have 

 been just as abundant in previous seasons, but 

 have not been so much noticed, for the reason 

 that there have not been so many electric lights 

 to which they could be attracted. Like so many 

 of the true bugs, they have a very peculiar and 

 rank smell. A number of other water-insects are 

 also attracted to light, but never in such quanti- 

 ties. 



— The following papers were entered to be 

 read at the annual meeting of the National 

 academy of sciences, which convened at Washing- 

 ton, Tuesday, April 20 : G. F. Gilbert, The geo- 

 logic age of the Equus fauna ; T. Sterry Hunt, 

 The Cowles electrical furnace ; E. D. Cope, On 

 the phylogeny of the Batrachia ; On the phylogeny 

 of the placental mammalia ; H. A. Newton, The 

 comet of Biela ; Elias Loomis, Areas of high 

 barometric pressure over Europe and Asia ; 

 Samuel H. Scudder, The cockroach in the past 

 and present ; James D. Dana, Biographical 

 memoir of Arnold Guyot. 



— In his annual report for 1885, the United States 

 entomologist continues his report on silk-culture 

 in the United States. He does not speak very 

 encouragingly of its immediate success as a 

 profitable industry, and thinks any stimulus given 

 to it must needs be temporary, and that the sub- 

 stantial way of encouraging the industry w T ill be 

 by imposing an import duty on the reeled silk 

 from foreign countries. Two stations have been 

 established by the agricultural department during 

 the past year for the production of reeled silk ; 

 and Dr. Riley concludes, that, with the introduc- 

 tion of the improved Serrell reel, the cost of 

 reeled silk per pound may be reduced to $4.38. 

 The cost of several hundred pounds of reeled silk 

 produced at the New Orleans station was $5.90 

 per pound, or, as corrected for needless expendi- 

 ture, $5.35 : it brought in the market $4.50. 



