NOTES UPON THE FOOD OF PREDACEOUS BEETLES.* 



BY F. M. WEBSTER. 



Pliny thought it nothing to the credit of the philoso- 

 phers of his day, that while they were disputing about the 

 number of heroes by the name of Hercules, and the site of 

 the sepulcher of Bacchus, they should not have been able 

 to decide whether or not the queen bee possessed a sting/ 



While the problem of the bee sting has long been de- 

 cided, and heroes by the name of Hercules have ceased to 

 trouble the minds of men, there are problems of vital im- 

 portance regarding the habits of the insects which, during 

 the greater portion of the year, we meet daily in abun- 

 dance, that still remain unsolved. 



The most important as well as the most abundant of 

 these insects are the beetles. 



While found in almost every conceivable situation, 

 while our naturalists count the species in their cabinets 

 by' the thousands, it would be difficult to point out a single 

 species, the food habits of which we fully understand, 

 when both the larvae and imago state are taken under con- 

 sideration. 



True, we have a sort of ritual laid down by entomolo- 

 gists, based upon the fact that certain species have been 

 known to feed upon certain substances, but this can no 

 more be considered as proof that nothing else enters into 

 their natural diet, than does the meat of which we may 

 partake at dinner prove us to be strictly carnivorous, or 

 the bread or fruit, that we are exclusively vegetarians. 



An illustration of this double diet of beetles is found in 

 the case of the European Silpha opaca Linn., the larva of 

 which has been known to feed to an injurious extent upon 

 the leaves of the beet and mangel-wurzel.^ 



But one of the most fortunate in getting the benefit of 

 our ignorance is the family Carabidse, to utter a word 

 against which is almost considered a sacrilege. 



♦Although this paper does not belong with the studies made at the 

 Laboratory, but is based entirely upon the author's personal observa- 

 tions, it is included with this series, with his permission, because it re- 

 lates to the same subject. These observations precede, in point of 

 time, those of the following paper. — S. A. F, 



JPliny, Hist. Nat., 1, xi, c, 17. 

 "Curtis, "Farm Insects," p. 388, 



