NO. 7 PROTECTIVE ADAPTATIONS McATEE 47 



former have been devoured very extensively by birds, an entire 

 orchard having been cleared of the pear psylla by nuthatches. (Zooh 

 Bull. Pennsylvania Dep. Agr., vol. 3, p. 79, July, 1907.) Plant lice 

 were found in large numbers in the stomachs of some birds, up to 

 200 or more in each of five species of the finch family, 300 or more 

 in three of them (pine siskin and two goldfinches), about 650 in the 

 stomach of a nighthawk and 1,600 in that of a wood duck. On a 

 200-acre farm in North Carolina, birds were found to be destroying 

 more than a million grain aphids daily. (^TcAtee, W. L., Yearbook, 

 U. S. Dep. Agr. (1912). i)p. 397-404, 1913.) Aleurodidae have not 

 as yet been identified from stomachs of nearctic birds ; possibly some 

 may have been confused with scale-insects. The latter, notwith- 

 standing deprecatory statements that have been made relative to birds 

 as predators upon them, have been found in the stomachs of 88 species 

 of nearctic birds. No fewer than 100 Eulccauiuin ccrasifcx were 

 found in the stomach of a rose-breasted grosbeak, 300 Margarodcs 

 in one of a scaled quail, 304 Saissctia olcac in that of a black-headed 

 grosbeak and 200, 700, and 800 of the same scale, respectively, in 

 three stomachs of the pine siskin. 



Other enemies. — Salamanders, toads, and frogs are recorded in the 

 Pennsylvania reports as feeding upon both Heteroptera and Homop- 

 tera, as are also the common swift lizard {Sccloporus imdulatus) and 

 the copperhead {Agkistrodon coiitorfrix) and the hog-nosed snake 

 (Heterodon platirJiiiws). The same source credits five species of 

 turtles with eating Heteroptera and one with devouring Homoptera. 

 Munz found that all the common frogs feed on Hemiptera about as 

 freely as upon any other in.sects, and Garman found l)ugs in 6 out of 

 20 stomachs of the common toad. Winton reports the Texas horned 

 lizard (Phfyiiosoiiia conuitiini) as eating stink bugs. 



Aquatic hemiptera, particularly Corixidae, are eaten by most fresh- 

 water fishes, while scattering representatives of the terrestrial families 

 are taken now and then as opportunities occur. Forbes records from 

 fish stomachs representatives of 14 families of Heteroptera and three 

 of Homoptera. Among mammals, the common mole is known to take 

 leafhoppers, chinch bugs, and other species ; shrews do not entirely 

 neglect Hemiptera ; the nine-banded armadillo devours Cydnidae and 

 Pentatomidae. 



Insect enemies of Hemiptera include both nymphal and adult 



dragonflies, the former getting considerable numbers of C/orixidae and 



the latter representatives of various families. I\()bl)cr Ihcs feed freely 



upon Hemiptera, ground beetles and ladybirds devour them, and the 



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