448 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ECONOMIC EELATIONS. 



Thus we see that ants form the largest percentage of any element in the 

 adult toad's food; that the beetles of the family CarabidcB and injurious 

 lepidopterous insects are next most largely eaten, and that grasshoppers and 

 crickets, as also the beetles of the strawberry crown girdler (0. ligneus), come 

 next in order. 



The ants cannot be classed as beneficial because when very numerous they 

 become a nuisance. The Carabid beetles almost without exception belonged 

 to the genera which Prof. Forbes has found to be vegetable feeding, so that 

 their destruction cannot be deplored. The other elements were almost wholly 

 injurious. 



The food of the small toads, so far as could be determined from a num- 

 ber of specimens examined, consists of injurious or innoxious species. 



Thus we see that the value of toads has not been overestimated in the 

 popular mind. They are of immense benefit, and should be allowed life, 

 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness at all times. About the only thing that 

 is said against them is that they sometimes eat honey-bees when near the 

 hives. This can be easily obviated by placing boards a few inches high 

 around the apiary. 



THE CHERRY SLUG. 



BY CLARENCE M. WEED. 



Selandria cerasi, Peck. Order, Hymenoptera. Family, Tenthredinidcs. 



This is another of the pests which are unusually abundant the present 

 season ; from all over the State complaints have come of its destructive 

 ravages. This insect is no new enemy to American pomologists ; nearly a cen- 

 tury ago it was described by Prof. Peck of Massachusetts, and later was fully 

 treated of in Dr. Harris's classic work on "Insects Injurious to Vegetation." 

 But little has been written about it since, although Prof. Forbes treats of it 

 in his report as State Entomologist of Illinois for 1882, stating that it is quite 

 destructive to cherry trees throughout the northern part of that State. 



NATUEAL HISTORY. 



The four winged flies, known to science as Selandria cerasi, are closely 

 related to the notorious currant worm, both belonging to the Te7iihredi7iid(B 

 or saw-fly family. To this family also belong several other injurious species; 

 among them are the rose slug, the raspberry slug, the strawberry slug, and a 

 species which often does much injury to oaks by devouring their foliage. The 

 insects of this family are so named because of the saw-like ovipositors with 

 which they make incisions in the leaves to receive their eggs. 



The cherry saw-fly (Fig. 13) is a blackish insect about one 



fifth of an inch long. The eggs for the first brood of 



worms are laid early in June; these soon hatch into olive 



green, slimy slugs (Fig. 14), having twenty short legs. The 



Fig. 13. name of slug is a misnomer, as the true slugs are not insects 



at all. These pests were probably so called because of their resemblance to 



the true slugs. They eat the upper surface of the leaf, causing a badly 



