Kansas University Weekly.
157
Science Notes.
Mr. Brown who has been collecting for the American Museum of New York during the summer reached home Wednesday. He intends to enter school after the election.
Mr. Tucker reports that the negatives forwarded by Prof. Dyche are in good shape. There are about two hundred of them. Lantern slides will be made from them in the near future.
Mr. Tucker is preparing a number of lantern slides, treating of the Armenian difficulty and astronomical subjects for the use of Prof. Penny and Prof. Miller respectively.
Mr. Bunker of the Zoological department shot a golden crowned Kinglet Regulus Satrapa. This bird is very rare in this state. We have no specimen of it in the museum.
Dr. Van Buren Stevens notwithstanding the long list of studies that he is already pursuing, has just added Geology to his course and is a regular attendant at the lectures that are being given upon that subject.
Mr. Gowell received a letter from Prof. Dyche, saying that he arrived at San Francisco on the 20th and was waiting for his collection which was on board the Kodiak. Prof.'Dyche will start for Lawrence as soon as he has repacked his collection.
Mr. Riggs who during the past month has been collecting for the University arrived here Tuesday. He was successful in recovering the remains of a Dinosaur, a lizard-like animal. During the early part of the summer Mr. Riggs was working with a party under the direction of Dr. Wortman of the American Museum. They collected in the Big Horn Basin and the northern part of Colorado, and succeeded in obtaining besides many other valuable objects the remains of a Coryphodon an animal somewhat like the hippopotamus.
Mr. Menke has collected for the aquarium of the Entomological department several specimens of Corisidae, Notoneclidae and Dytiscidae.
These insects are familiar to every one who frequents the river. They attract one's attention by the prodigious rapidity with which they cut their way through the water and by the graceful curves they trace which disappear as soon as made.
The Corisidae are remarkable on account of the silvery appearance which they present as they dive down through the water. This is caused by air which envelopes the body, and enables them to breath under water. In pure water the air is purified by contact with fine particles of air scattered through the water so that the insects can stay under water indefinitely. The bodies of the insects when thus enveloped in the air are much lighter than water, so that when they lose their hold on an object they quickly rise to the surface unless they prevent it by swimming.
The Notoneclidae are very common in ditches, reservoirs and stagnant pools. This insect is very bloodthirsty and one of the most carniverous of insects. It seizes upon insects much larger than itself and does not even spare its own species. Owing to the shape of its back which is something like the bottom of a boat, spends its time in an inverted position, propelling itself by its long oar-shaped legs.
The Dytiscidae may be called the sharks of the insect world. Nothing which lives in the water is safe from their voracity. They attack molluscs, young fish, tadpoles, larvae of insects, and suck greedily raw pieces of meat which are thrown to them.
Their oval shaped body with its sharp sides, permits them to cut through the water with great ease the hind legs serving as oars. The Dytiscidae live in troops and swim with great rapidity. They are to be found in stagnant waters during the greatest part of the year but principally in the autumn.
There is much dissatisfaction among students over the action of the University Council in deciding to continue classes Monday and Tuesday. Several Professors said they would not meet their classes on that day.