54 The Food Rehflons of the Carahida- and Coocmellidtp. 



and lichen spores to four per cent. The Jacksonville specimen 

 liad eaten only fungi. 



Genus Cycloneda. 



In the corn-field with the chinch-bugs, three specimens of (J. 

 i<an(juinea were collected, which had eaten plant-lice, pollen of 

 Composit<f , lichen spores and spores of fungi. The first made 

 about one-third of their food, the pollen grains were estimated at 

 nearly half, and lichen spores at three per cent. The eighteen 

 per cent, of fungi were of the usual character. 



The Family as a Unit. 



A summary and comparison of the food of these two groups, 

 taken singly without reference to their genera, develops some in- 

 teresting and unexpected facts. Although the corn-field in which 

 the second collection was made was teeming with insects of the 

 kinds especially tempting to the Coccinellid;^, arid although these 

 beetles themselves were there in truly surprising numbers, it is 

 not easy to believe, considering the tables upon which this dis- 

 cussion is based, that the Coccinellidae were attracted to the field 

 by the abundance of insects available for tlieir food. The beetles 

 of the first group are seen to have eaten nearly twice as many 

 insects as those from the field of corn, while the fungi eaten were 

 as thirty-six to fifty-six respectively. Only eighteen specimens 

 were dissected, out of the large number collected in the corn-field, 

 but the contents of their stomachs were of so uniform a character 

 that there was every reason to suppose that they illustrated cor- 

 rectly the food of the family at that time and place. It would 

 therefore seem possible that these beetles were attracted rather 

 by the stores of fungi in the field, than by the chinch-bugs and 

 Aphides. The condition of the leaves and stalks of the corn, 

 drained and deadened by insect depredations, was such as to 

 aiford an excellent nidus for the development of those fungi 

 which spring up every where spontaneously upon dead and decay- 

 ing vegetation, and these were in fact extremely abundant. An 

 alternative explanation is perhaps more probable. The condition 

 of the field gave abundant evidence that the plant-lice had been 

 very much more numerous some time before; and it is possible 

 that, as a consequence of this decrease of food, and the increase of 



