. Annual report of the Trustees of the State Museum of Natural History for the year ... Science; Museums. 244 Forty-first Report on the State Museum. Entomological Society of Philadelphia, i\, 1863, p. 179, but its description is not yet published. The type specimens came from the upper Wisconsin river. Early Life of the Ephemera. Like the " dragon-flies " to which they are related, the ephemera are aquatic in their early stages, swimming about quite actively in the water, in pursuit of food. Some of the species, according to Westwood, are of a more quiet nature, and live in burrows
. Annual report of the Trustees of the State Museum of Natural History for the year ... Science; Museums. 244 Forty-first Report on the State Museum. Entomological Society of Philadelphia, i\, 1863, p. 179, but its description is not yet published. The type specimens came from the upper Wisconsin river. Early Life of the Ephemera. Like the " dragon-flies " to which they are related, the ephemera are aquatic in their early stages, swimming about quite actively in the water, in pursuit of food. Some of the species, according to Westwood, are of a more quiet nature, and live in burrows in the mud of the banks, divided internally in two canals, each having a separate open- ing externally at the extremity, so that the insect can crawl in at one hole and out of the other, without being obliged to make the awkward turn it would have to do in a straight hole. Their aquatic life may be quite long, even extending to two or three years, during which time, in one genus, they are said to undergo as many ae twenty molts. The Short Life of the Winged Insect. Their winged life is not limited to a single day, as might be inferred from a popular name sometimes given them, of " day^ies," yet it is much more brief than that of most insects. It is believed that some of the species do not live longer than a day, while others have been kept alive for weeks. Mr. B. D. Walsh has retained liv- ing examples of Hexagenia bilineaia (Say) in his breeding cake for nearly a week* (shown in Figure 50, from an example taken by me in Schenectady, N. Y., in the month Fig. bilineata of June.) De Geer has kept Ephemera ves- (Say). pertina alive for eight days, and Stephens mentions having kept specimens of Gloeon dipterum alive for more than three weeks {Westioood's Introduction, ii, p. 27). Their Economic Value, Distribution, etc. The Ephemerse have long been noted for furnishing excellent and abundant food for fishes. Swallows and other birds also feed eagerly upon th
Size: 1606px × 1556px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdeca, booksubjectmuseums, booksubjectscience
