177 



entire. Many of them, however, feed more or less on vegetation, prin- 

 cipally the seeds and tissues of grasses and grains, inehiding corn; and 

 some connnon gcMiera, notably Anisodactytus, Harpalus, and Amara, derive 

 the gr(;at(!r i)art of their food from such S(jurces. Spe(!ies of these genera 

 are o^ten seen on the tops of grasses and other plants, feeding on the 



Fig. 169. Pleroslichus permundus. Five times 

 natural size. 



Fig. 170. Pteroalichus lucublandus. 

 times natural size. 



Five 



I 



seeds. So far as the habits of the larva? are known they seem to be 

 much the same as those of their respective adults. 



Several species have been seen by us in fall hollowing out grains 

 of corn, esi:)ecially on fallen ears or broken-down stalks or where decay 

 or previous injury facilitated their work. Ptcrostichus permundus (Fig. 

 169) was found eating away the side of a fallen kernel, beginning at a 

 point of previous injury. P. lucublandus (Fig. 170) was seen on fallen 

 ears, eating into a number of grains and leaving only a thin shell. Amara 

 musculus was found with other insects among husks and on the ears of 

 standing corn. Individuals of Platj/nus crenistriatus were seen on a fallen 

 and slightly decayed ear of corn, feeding freely on the grains. Plalynus 

 cincticollis, found on an ear of corn on the stalk, had completely hollowed 

 out two of the kernels. Anisodactijlus rusticus was found ])eneath the 

 husks of an ear of corn on the stalk, in a cavity which it was making 

 in one of the grains, and other grains were seen similarly injured. 



