93 
A NEW ENEMY TO FIGS IN MEXICO. 
Dr. Edward Palmer, when visiting Parras, in the State of Coahuila, 
Mexico, in the midsummer of 1898, was surprised to notice the 
destruction of the fig crop by an insect he had not known before to 
be injurious to that fruit. He saw in the different gardens trees 
loaded with figs in the various stages of ripening. Under the trees 
were many which had fallen, and which were dry and hard. Little 
plant bugs were noticed attacking the fruit as soon as it began to be 
soft and sweet. They inserted their beaks and sucked until all of the 
sweet moisture was extracted. The trees were covered with fruit in 
all stages of destruction, and the dried fruit on the ground showed 
the end of the whole crop. 
The fig was of the blue-black kind, a very prolific bearer, and quite 
sweet. There were no figs in the market, and the crop in that vicinity 
was practically destroyed. 
Dr. Palmer brought home specimens of the insect, but all were, 
unfortunately, immature. Mr. O. Heidemann examined them and 
found that they belonged to a species of Pyrrhocoride, coming nearest 
to Stenomacra marginella H. §. 
ON THE FOOD HABITS OF THE PAPABOTTE. 
Mr. G. H. Ellwanger, Rochester, N. Y., writes us under date of 
November 25 concerning food habits of the papabotte, which is Creole 
French for Bartram’s sandpiper, a bird somewhat more commonly 
known as the field, grass, or upland plover, which frequents our pas- 
tures and feeds on grasshoppers, crickets, and other insects. Accord- 
ing to our correspondent, this bird appears in Louisiana and Texas in 
large numbers about the middle of July, remaining until the latter 
part of September. Simultaneously with the advent of a species of 
** Spanish fly,” which also appears in great numbers, and which eats 
ravenously of various growing things. The papabotte feeds upon 
this insect and becomes very fat, acquiring a peculiar and very high 
flavor. But the flesh of the bird as a result of this diet is said to be 
sometimes poisonous, and also to be highly aphrodisiacal in its effects. 
A steward of one of the New Orleans clubs is quoted as stating that 
he found twenty-six of these Spanish flies in the stomach of a dozen 
birds examined. 
As there are upward of a score of common species of Meloide, or 
Spanish flies, better known as blister beetles in portions of Texas, and 
nearly all of these become periodically very numerous and destructive, 
it is impossible to specify the insect or insects preferred as a food by 
this bird. 
