NO. 7 PROTECTIVE ADAPTATIONS McATEE 63 



The snow-white hnden moth {Ennouws siibsiguaritis) has a typical 

 twiglike caterpillar, but several entomologists have testified that it was 

 practically exterminated in cities by the English sparrow. (See 

 Herrick, G. \V.. Bull. 286, Cornell Univ. Agr. Exp. Sta., p. 62, 

 Nov., 1910.) 



The only other important family of moths which our tabulations 

 might indicate to be neglected by birds is the Pyralidae. With little 

 doubt this condition is due either to the larvae not being recognized 

 or to our stomach material not being fullv representative. Certainly 

 birds are known to be enemies of our pyralid larvae, a little search 

 revealing records of a\ian predators upon Loxostegc siiiiilalis. L. 

 sficticolis. PUocrocis fripitiictafa. Piuif^csiis ::imiiiermamii, Diatraea 

 saccJiaralis. Acrobasis iichulella, and Pyrausfa mibilalis. Five species 

 are known to feed on the last-named, the corn rootborer, while of 

 Lo.Yosfcr/c sficficalis, the beet webworm. it is recorded that : " Tnsect- 

 eating birds devour the worms in large quantities. W^here the worms 

 were abundant [in Colorado] .... blackbirds were attracted in 

 flocks of thousands and in several instances .... the worms were all 

 cleaned out of fields by them in the course of two or three days." ( Gil- 

 lette, C. P., Bull. 98, Colorado Agr. Exp. Sta., p. 10, Mar., 1905.) 



These instances emphasize the universal scope of the predatory 

 activities of birds; in general the enemies of economic species of 

 msects are better known, and fully discounting the fact that they are 

 most studied, this is only another way of saying that the most abun- 

 dant species have the most numerous enemies. 



COLEOPTEKA (BEETLES) 



Protective adap'ations. — While more pages have been written about 

 warning colors, mimicry and the like in Lepidoptera, which insects 

 furnished the inspiration for this line of specvilation, the important 

 and extensive order of Coleoptera has been far from neglected and 

 perhaps the most ]M)sitive statements of all have been made regarding 

 the "protected" status of some of its members. In conclusions 

 derived from G. A. K. ^darshall's data on " The Bionomics of South 

 African Insects" (Trans. Ent. Soc. London, 1902, pp. 393-584), 

 Prof. E. B. Poulton in discussing the chief specially defended 

 Coleoptera mentions : " The groups about which there seems to be no 

 doubt at all — conspicuous, constantly refused by insect-eaters, and 

 liable to be mimicked by other Coleoptera are the following : Eroty- 

 lidae, Cf)ccinellidae, Malacodermidae. including the Lycinae, Eam- 

 pyrinae and Telephorinae, Melyridae, Cantharidae, Chrysomelidae, 

 5 



