174 Notes on Inseetlvorov.s Coleoptera. 



ed as carefully as possible the relative amounts of these two 

 kinds of food in the alimentary canal of each insect, and 

 from these data concluded that about half the food of these 

 twenty-eight specimens consisted of vegetation, and that 

 one-third of it consisted certainly of insects, — the remain- 

 der being made up of doubtful animal matter. About one- 

 third of the vegetable food had been derived from crypto- 

 gamic plants and another third from the different struc- 

 tures of grasses, Oompositae and other miscellaneous vege- 

 tation making up the remainder. Considering the fact, how- 

 ever, that the commonest species were found feeding upon 

 vegetation far the most generally, it is likely that, taking 

 the Oarabidse as a group, not more than one-third or one- 

 fourth of their average food consists of animal matter. - 



Food of Podabrus. 



The contents of three stomachs of Podabrus tomentosus 

 were examined ; and all these had eaten only the spores of 

 Phoma mentioned under Loxopeza. The specimens were 

 all sent me in July, by Mr. A. S. McBride, of Freeland, 111. 



Food of Coccinellid^. 



Coccinella novem-notata. — Two specimens w^hich were 

 taken at Normal, in August, were examined, agreeing very 

 closely in their food, each having eaten various spores of 

 fungi (aboutninety percent. ) and plant-lice (ten per cent.). 

 Among the fungus spores. Professor Burrill, to whom they 

 were submitted, recognized spores of Ustilago and Helmin- 

 thosporkwi ; and a few lichen spores were also noticed. 



Bracliyacantha ursina. — The stomach of one individual 

 of this species contained only a few fungus spores.* 



Hippodamia convergens. — A specimen, captured in Au- 

 gust, at Normal, had eaten great quantities of fungus 

 spores, which composed about three-fourths of its food. 

 Fragments of a mite and a plant-louse and a little pollen 

 of Oompositae were also found. In a second specimen, 

 taken in September, the remains of a myriapod belonging 

 to the family Geophilidae, acrospores of a fungus, the pol- 



*I have assured myself that none of the fungi found in the alimentary 

 c^rials of these beetles were entophytes. 



