﻿40 SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



noiensis). The description was republished, together with the sub- 

 stance of Mr. Shimer's observations in the Prairie Farmer, of Chicago, 

 111., accompanied with a non-characteristic wood-cut of the larva, 

 cocoon and imago. At this time Mr. Shimer favored me with two 

 specimens of the perfect insect, and he likewise furnished Mr. Walsh 

 with additional specimens. From these specimens, it is evident that 

 the species is the same as that described long before, by Dr. Fitch, as 

 the Weeping Lacewing {Chrysopa ploralmnda). In 186S, I found the 

 same species quite numerous in a wheat-field belonging to Mr. T. R. 

 Allen, of Allenton, where its larvse were perhaps feeding on the 

 chinch bugs, as they were found to do in North Illinois, by Dr. Shi- 

 mer. The Lacewing-flies all bear a striking resemblance to one 

 another, both in size, shape and color. They almost all of them, in 

 fly state, have a characteristic and disagreeable odor, resembling 

 nothing so much as human ordure. (For further details see Rep. ], 

 pp. 57-8, and Rep. G, Fig. 10). 



"According to Dr. Shimer, the Weeping Laeewing-fly was not 

 quite as abundant as the Spotted Ladybird among the fodder-corn, 

 but still there were so many of them, that he thought that 'there wa& 

 one or more of them for every stalk of that thickly sown corn.* 

 'Every stroke of the cutter,' he adds, 'would raise three or four dozen 

 of them, presenting quite an interesting spectacle as they staggered 

 along in their awkward, unsteady flight.' And he not only actually 

 observed the larvns preying very voraciously on the chinch bugs in 

 the field, but he reared great numbers of them to the mature fly by 

 feeding them upon chinch bugs. His account of the operations of 

 the larva when in captivity is so interesting that I quote it in full : 



I placed one of the larvas iu a vial, after having- captured it in the field in the very 

 act of devourino: chinch busfs of all sizes, and subsequently introduced into the vial a 

 number of chinch bugs. They had hardly reached the bottom before it seized one of 

 the largest ones, pierced it with its long jaws, held it almost motionless for about a 

 minute while it was sucking the juices from the body of its victim, and then threw 

 down the lifeless shell. In this way, I saw it destroj' in quick succession, about a dozen 

 bugs. Towards the last, as its appetite was becoming satiated, it spent five or more 

 minutes in sucking the juices from the body of one bug. After this bountiful repasts 

 it remained motionless for an hour or more, as if asleep. Never for a single moment, 

 during the feast, did it pause in the work. When not in possession of a bug, it was on 

 the search for, or in the pursuit of others. It manifested much eagerness m the pur- 

 suit of its prey, yet not with a lion-like boldness; for on several occasions I observed a 

 manifest timorousness, a halting in the attack, as if conscious of danger in its hunting 

 expeditions, although here there was none. Sometimes, when two or more bugs wen- 

 approaching rapidly, it would shrink back from the attack, and turning aside go in the 

 pursuit of others. At length, awakening, it would renew the assault as before. On 

 one occasion, when it was on the side of the vial, two inches up, with a large bug in 

 its mouth, I jarred the vial, so that it fell to the bottom ami rolled over and over across 

 the bottom, but holding on to its prey, it regained its footing and mounted up to its 

 ■former position. Occasionally the chinch bugs would hasten to escape when pursued, 

 as if in some degree conscious of danger. 



