44 The Food Relatioiis of the Carabidce and Coccinellidce. 



Genus Anisoda.ctylus. 



This large and abundant genus is represented by thirty-one 

 specimens, belonging to six species. Five specimens of A. rnsti- 

 cus were examined, captured in McLean and DeKalb Counties in 

 May, June, and July. Two of these had taken only liquid animal 

 food, but the remaining three had eaten no animal matter at all. 

 Among the fungi found, Cladosporium and Peronospora were 

 recognized, and fragments of Hepaticte were "noted in two of the 

 beetles. Two specimens of A. hm'risi, taken in Union County 

 in April, 1882, liad eaten only vegetation, all seeds of grass and 

 of other plants. A single A. discoideus from McLean County in 

 June, contained nothing but liquid food. Seven examples of A. 

 baltimorejisis, widely distributed in time and place, had derived 

 only about fourteen per cent, of their food from the animal king- 

 dom, all taken by one of the beetles, whose stomach contained 

 only chyme. About half of the eighty-six per cent, of vegeta- 

 tion, composing the entire food of the remaining six specimens, 

 was demonstrably obtained from the seeds of June grass, upon 

 which several of the insects were taken. Two examples of A. 

 sericeiis from Northern Illinois had made about three-fourths of 

 their food of grass, and the remainder of unrecognizable insects. 

 In the stomachs of two specimens of A. opaculus^ fragments of 

 seeds and other vegetation were the only objects found. 



Taking together the nineteen specimens of this genus above 

 mentioned, collected in various places, we find that animal food 

 made about one-fourth of the total, and that the vegetation as far 

 as recognized was chiefly derived from June grass and other 

 graminaceous plants. 



The record of ten specimens taken from the canker-worm 

 orchard, is not especially different from that of the foregoing 

 group. Only one of these had eaten animal matter at all, ninety 

 per cent, of the food of this consisting of undetermined Diptera. 

 Here, again, the recognizable vegetation was chiefly graminaceous, 

 only ten per cent, being clearly derived from exogenous plants. 

 Two specimens from the cabbage field afford no occasion for 

 special remark. The stomach of one was distended with liquid 

 animal food ; that of the other contained vegetation only. 



