FALSE WIREWORMS OF PACIFIC NORTHWEST. 85 
Dr. Blaisdell! refers to the ground owl (Speotyto cunicularia 
hypogza) as one of their enemies, and further states that the butcher 
bird impales them on thorns. 
It is very generally known among the farmers of the wheat regions 
of the Pacific Northwest that the Brewer’s blackbirds (Luphagus 
cyanocephalus) follow the plow and eat the ‘‘white worms”’ (Eleodes 
pupz) when the summer-fallow is being worked. The birds are to 
be seen walking in the furrows and flying away with their beaks 
filled with the soft white pupe. 
The western bluebirds (Sialia mexicana ocevdentalis) were seen at 
Govan, Wash., in large flocks feeding on the larve which had been 
driven to the surface by an unusually heavy rain. 
The stomachs of several horned toads (Phrynosoma douglasir 
douglasii) were examined and found to contain fragments of Eleodes 
larve, but several of these toads kept in captivity refused to eat 
the adult beetles, though they would feed voraciously on other 
beetles. These little horned toads, or, as they are locally known, 
sand toads, are without doubt one of the most valuable animals in 
the western dry-farming regions. In the Southwest a larger species 
(Phrynosoma cornutum), with long stout spines on the head, sup- 
plants the former species. These toads move very rapidly and eat 
enormous numbers of insects. .The garden toad (Bufo sp.) is re- 
corded in the files of the Bureau of Biological Survey as feeding on 
Eleodes. Dr. Blaisdell? gives the skunk as a natural enemy of 
these beetles. 
In the files of the Bureau of Entomology there is a note (No. 8186) 
by Mr. Theo. Pergande, wherein he records having received two 
larve from McPherson, Kans. These pupated, and later one of 
these pupe was killed by an ant (Tetramorium cespitum). 
Another of Mr. Pergande’s notes * records receiving an adult of 
Eleodes suturalis from Mr. C. E. Ward, of Belvidere, Nebr. This 
beetle was placed in a cigar box, and on examining the box on the 
following morning a large number of larvee were noticed crawling 
about. These larve later spun cocoons around the edge of the box 
and were believed to be microgasterid parasites that had issued 
from the beetle. The adult parasites were later determined as 
Perilitus n. sp., and these are preserved in the National Museum 
collections. 
The author found an adult beetle with the abdomen nearly filled 
by a nematode worm, but lost the specimen, making further deter- 
mination impossible. Mr. Myron Swenk* records a disease, prob- 
ably caused by bacteria or a fungus, that attacks the larve. The 


1 Bul. 63, U. S. Nat. Mus., p. 29, 1909. 
2 Loe. cit., p. 29. 
3 Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., vol. 2, pp. 211, 219, 1592. 
‘Jour. Econ. Ent., vol. 2, p. 335, 1909. 
