SOME INSECTS AND OTHER ARTHROPODS IN 



THE DIET OF THE WESTERN 



MEADOWLARK 



HAROLD C. BRYANT 



In euunectiou with the invcstiiiatiuu iuto the ccuuoiuiu status of certain 

 birds, now being carried on by tiic California State Fish and Game Com- 

 mission and the University of California, many interesting things regarding 

 their food-habits are being discovered. For some lime we have known that 

 certain birds destroy (luantities of insects. It has only been of late, however, 

 tliat we have attempted to determine the real kind and quantity taken. 

 Evidence furnished by the U. S. Biological Survey and economic ornitholo- 

 gists have revealed some facts of unusual interest. The present investigation 

 is not only substantiating some of these facts but has furnisiicd some interest- 

 ing new evidence. 



The quantity of food required by birds necessitates that the numl)ers of 

 insects taken be very great. Stomach examination of the western meadow- 

 lark {Sturnella neglecta) has shown that this bird often takes as many as 

 twenty large cutworms, thirty to forty ground beetles, ten to twenty crickets 

 or grasshoppers, and fifty or more ants to a meal. As the time of digestion 

 is between two and four hours the amount of food found in a meadowlark's 

 stomach represents the amount taken during the I'our hours l)efore the bird 

 was killed. Sixy-six meadowlarks taken in the vicinity of El Toro, Orange 

 County, California, averaged ten grasshoppers per stomach during the six 

 months, June to November, 1911. Seventy-three and twenty-three huuilredths 

 per cent of all the food taken by these sixty-six birds during tliese six months 

 was made up of grassiioppers. Individual l>irds must have averaged over 

 thirty grasshoppers a day during tliis time. 



liut jierhaps of more interest than the quantity of life destroyed by this 

 bird is some of the i)eeuliarities of its diet. The ordinary articles of diet are 

 ground beetles (Carabida-, Tenebrionid;v) , grasshoppers, crickets, cutworms, 

 wireworms, plant bugs (Pentatomidae), certain bees, wasps and ichneumon 

 flies, and ants. The extraordinary articles of diet can be summed up as, 

 centipedes, millipedes, scorpions, certain Crustacea, snails, spiders, and pro- 

 tected and stinging insects. 



Ground beetles are taken each montli of the year. The following are 

 those most often taken: I'lerostichus sp., Calathus nificollis, Ani.sodactylus 

 sp., Clacnius sp., Eleodes sp., Blapstinus sp., and Coniontis subpicbescens. 

 Aiiumg the other beetles identified are Silplia sp., DrasUrius sp., Mff/aprnthrs 

 attcriums. IJmonius californicun, Limoniits canis, Cnrdioplu/rus triu brosiis, 

 Sapri)iits sp., Sphenophorus sp., and DiahroUca soror. Weevils and snout 

 beetles including members of tlu' family ('ureuliniiidae \'(tr\n a considerable 

 percentage of the beetles taken as food. 



