bottom. One of these in section, discloses its curious occupant, the strangest of all the worms. At first sight all resemblance to the other worms seems to have become lost, and its entire structure is closely adapted to its peculiar habitation which it never leaves. The appendages of the middle segments of its body have united to form three circular "palettes” which fit closely the interior of the tube and act like the pistons of a suction pump, drawing the sea water in through one of the chimneys of the tube to flow out at the other. This incoming stream bears the multitude of minute organisms which form the food of the worm, and are abstracted by a special apparatus as the water current passes over its body. Other greatly modified worms are shown, such as the fringed worm (Cirratulus grandis) with its threadlike breathing and prehensile organs, and the trumpet worm (Pectinaria belgica) which builds a funnel-shaped tube of sand-grains and digs rapidly in the sand with a pair of golden combs borne upon its shoulders. All these are true worms which have become adapted in various ways to their environment. The sandworm (Phascolosoma gouldii) however, although externally wormlike, is internally of so different a structure that it is doubtfully classed with the worms at all. Several are shown in the group; some in a contracted condition, others expanded to disclose the slender graceful neck and head wreathed with delicate flesh-tinted tentacles. In a second arbitrary cavity, are shown several of the so-called acorn "worms" (Balanoglossus kowalevskii) — peculiar creatures with red "collar" and tapering proboscis which they fill with water until rigid and utilize as a digging organ. These "worms" swallow the mud for the sake of the animal and vegetable matter contained in it, and after all nutriment is extracted, cast it forth on the sea bottom at the entrance of their burrows molded into little stringlike piles, many of which are represented in the group. This acorn "worm" however has a far greater interest for science than in its peculiar habits and adaptations. In spite of its wormlike body, it is actually classed as an extremely primitive member of the same great group to which we ourselves belong, the chordates, since it possesses certain structures found only in that group. Its wormlike body, and probably that of the sand worm, is a secondary adaptation to its burrowing mode of life and illustrates the phenomenon of parallelism, the acquirement by totally unrelated organisms of similar form or structure as the effect of a similar environment. To sum up, the marine worms or any other group of animals in the midst of their natural environment, may be considered as the members of an interlocking and balanced association which is the net result and exemplification of the laws underlying evolution. The great diversification of form among the marine worms makes this especially clear, since diversification F A FISH OUT OF WATER By Bashford Dean AITH in our conception of what a fish ought to be is certainly shattered when we find one which can live for months, possibly for a year, out of water - which breathes by means of gills when in water, but with a lung during the summer drought, inhaling and exhaling air as though it were a land-living animal. Such a queer fish was recently sent by Dr. Joseph A. Clubb to the American Museum of Natural History in an exchange with the Public Museums of Liverpool. It came from the Gambian region of Africa, coiled up in a kind of cocoon, deeply sunken in a large clod of earth which months before had been a bit of the bottom of a dried-up stream. When received at the American Museum the cake of earth showed, as a sole sign that anything alive was within it, a little tunnel-like opening where the fish burrowed when the earth was still soft, and through which the fish later secured its supply of air for breathing. Indeed it is this opening which gives us the clue as to how the dormant fish can best be examined. For we may begin at the edge of the tunnel and chisel the hard earth away, and on reaching the bottom we may, cutting with greater care, The fish alive [greatly reduced in size and newly released from its cocoon in the block of earth. Its fins are crumpled: it is covered with slime and is dark, almost black in capsule within which the fish is tightly coiled. The whole mass is then placed in tepid water to soften the wall of the capsule (which was formed by mucous secretion on the surface of the fish's body) and thus to allow the fish to escape. Within a few minutes after the present cocoon had been placed in water, the papery wall or shell showed movements, but before the fish broke its way out, a trap door was cut in the side of the capsule so that a photograph could be taken. The mass was then again placed in water and within a few minutes the fish emerged. This lungfish is now exhibited in an aquarium on the fourth floor of the Museum in the hall of fossil fishes. It has been placed there since it is at home, scientifically speaking, among fishes which lived millions of years ago and whose race is almost extinct. It furnishes, in fact, an excellent instance of the survival of a race of animals from a very ancient period of time. It has further claim to our interest, for we can safely say that a lung A FISH OUT OF WATER 253 fish pictures the kind of fish which gave rise to the earliest land-living animals, or the stock of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. In fact the present little fish is known by anatomists to have many striking similarities to salamanders. Thus in a general way, its limbs represent a stage between fins and hands, and it uses them in a fashion which suggests a salamander. So also in structures of skin, muscles, skeleton and brain, the fish is to a certain degree, a connecting link between the true fishes and the four-footed animals. As far as is known, this is the second specimen of a living lungfish to be brought to the United States, and those who are interested in natural history in general and in fishes in particular, would perhaps be glad to profit by the opportunity of seeing it alive. Its scientific name, Protopterus annectens, by the way, refers in the first word to its supposedly primitive fins, and in the second to its being intermediate between fishes and amphibians. THE IMPORTANCE OF INSECTS By Frank E. Lutz INTRODUCTORY NOTE. There are few halls in the Museum better arranged to instruct in the particular animal class represented and in addition to teach the principles of biology than the insect hall. It is used continually by high schools as a laboratory for their classes who, because the hall is so well arranged in correlation with the high school courses and is so clearly and fully labeled, can be sent to the Museum with lists of questions for undirected observation and study. The hall has a separate exhibit, for example, covering the importance of insects. This contains not only such objects as silk, shellac and other useful products of insects, wax models to show the action of the bumble-bee in pollinating the flowers of the apple tree and thus insuring the harvest of fruit, etcetera, but also diagrams telling with emphasis certain well proved facts concerning insect-borne diseases, which can but make the boy or girl draw his own conclusions as to the need of action and the value of action in such matters as public hygiene. This is but one exhibit. There are many others covering the subject matter of entomology and its practical relation to agriculture as well as special exhibits illustrating such biological theories as sexual dimorphism, fluctuating variation, geographical distribution and heredity. EDITOR. T HOREAU was right in believing that there was more to entomology than the study of insect pests. Yet if there were not, entomology would still be the queen of biological sciences. Agriculture and forestry are injured to the enormous extent of eight hundred millions of dollars annually by less than one per cent of the insects of the United States; the fourteen thousand deaths annually from malarial fevers in the United States, to say nothing of malarial illnesses not resulting in death, are due "We accuse savages of worshipping only the bad spirit or devil. Though they may distinguish both a good and a bad, they regard only the one which they fear, worship the devil only. We too are savages in this, doing precisely the same thing. This occurred to me yesterday as I sat in the woods admiring the beauty of the blue butterfly. We are not chiefly interested in birds and insects, for example, because they are ornamental to the earth and cheering to man, but we spare the lives of the former only on condition that they eat more grubs than they do cherries, and the only account of the insects which the State encourages solely to one species of mosquito; typhoid, tuberculosis and other diseases are peddled in all parts of the world by the common house-fly; yellow fever, bubonic plague and sleeping sickness have made large portions of the globe practically uninhabitable to the human race solely through the work of insects. On the other hand, it is impossible to estimate the material benefits that insects confer. Were bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects suddenly wiped out of existence, the majority of the world's flowers would go with them leaving only such as the field corn and other grasses, and fruit crops would then be failures. A few insects damage fruits in the United States to the extent of twenty-seven million dollars annually, but practically all of the one hundred and thirty-five million dollars worth of fruit that we use owes its existence to insects. It would be impossible to get a single crop of clover seed without the aid of insects while insects damage but ten per cent of the total hay crop. When fig-growing was first attempted in this country, the trees never held their fruit until ripe. A minute insect which fertilizes the figs in the Mediterranean region was imported and now thousands of pounds of the finest fruit in the world are produced every year in the United States. Often a crop is injured by an insect and relieved from that injury by another insect. For example, twenty years ago the orange and olive orchards of California were on the verge of destruction on account of scale insects, when two species of predacious beetles were imported from Australia. and a little parasitic fly from Cape Colony. So thoroughly did these accomplish the task upon which human efforts had been of no avail that the destructive scales are now as scarce as they were once abundant, and oranges and olives flourish. These are only a few cases, hundreds of species of insects throughout the country are doing similar beneficial work. In addition we have many direct products of insects such as the shellac on our furniture, the silk in our decorations, the honey for our bread and even many of our medicines. Moreover insects are important to all interested in natural history because of their large number, not only of individuals but also of species. Approximately three-fourths of the known kinds of animals are insects. There are more than fifteen thousand species of insects within fifty miles of New York City as compared with about thirteen thousand species of birds in the entire world and less than half that number of mammals. Insects form a group surpassing all others in material for study of instinct or racial behavior, of variation in form and color; as also for research in problems in heredity since the breeding is so rapid that the chain of |