42 The Food Melatioiis of the Carabidw and Coccinellidce. 



entire food of one of the beetles, consisted wholly of fragments 

 of grass.* 



Genus Amara. 



Six specimens of this genus were dissected, three of ^■1. cari- 

 nata, one of A. anyustata, and two of A. impuncticolMs. Three 

 specimens of A. carinata., taken in Southern Illinois in April, 

 1882, had eaten only vegetation, partly derived from gramina- 

 ceous plants, and partly consisting of seeds and exogenous tissues. 

 About one-fourth of the food was recognizable as fungi, chiefly of the 

 genus Peronospora. Ninety per cent, of that of a single A. an- 

 gustata, taken in June, consisted of mites, the remainder being 

 fragments of grass. An A. impuncticollis^ taken m the orchard 

 with the canker-worms, had eaten only vegetable food, chiefly 

 undetermined, but with traces of fungi. x\nother of the same 

 species from the cabbage field, had derived its food about equally 

 from plant and animal sources, that from the former consisting 

 chiefly of grass. 



Genus Dic^lus. 



Three examples of Dicmlus elongatus had taken only animal 

 food, as indicated by the fluid contents of the stomachs. One of 

 these was found in the orchard, and the other in Central Illinois. 



Genus Chl^enius. 



This genus is represented by twenty-three individuals, the next 

 to the largest number studied of any genus of Carabida?. Six 

 examples from Southern Illinois, collected from April to Septem- 

 ber, belong to the species (J. drffinis^ C netnoralis, and (J. tornen- 

 tosus. The animal food of these was about three times the veg- 

 etable. Two-thirds consisted of insects, of which caterpillars 

 alone were determinable; and earth-worms eaten by one of the 

 beetles made about eight per cent. More than half the vegeta- 

 ble food consisted of fungi, which included fourteen per cent, of 

 some fleshy fungus, apparently Coprinus, together with spores of 

 Dematiei. Fragments of exogenous plants were recognized in 

 one of the beetles. A single 6'. diffinis^ taken among the cab- 



*A specimen of P. Incublandus was seen by Mr. F. M. Webster 

 making a meal from a dead P. sayi. 



