May, 19ir). 



American lae Journal 



the total number in this region. At a 

 moderate estimate there are at least 

 ■!ilOO species of beetles in the New 

 England States, so that less than per- 

 ccni or about !-l(i live partly or wholly 

 on flower food. This is fortunate for 

 many of them are such voracious feed- 

 ers that, if they all attempted to resort 

 to flowers, there would be little left for 

 the bees. 



But why is it that so few compara- 

 tively feed on pollen and nectar .■' 

 Their habits and forms in many in- 

 stances answer this question ; the tiger 

 beetles and ground beetles are carniv- 

 orous and live almost wholly on the 

 ground ; while the water tigers are 

 aquatic and also predaceous. Many 

 forms are scavengers, and live on de- 

 caying animal and vegetable matter. 

 Among the 1 'tter are the tumble-bugs, 

 or scarab;cids, so famous in art and 

 l"".gyptian mythology. The male and 

 female make little balls of dung, which 

 together they roll long distances 

 and bury in the earth to provide food 

 for their offspring — this is one of the 

 few instances among insects, says Com- 

 stock, in which "the male realizes his 

 responsibility as a father." Very large 

 beetles, of round stout forms with 

 short legs are too awkward and clumsy 

 to easily visit flowers; for example, I 

 have seen a lady-bug try to climb a 

 smooth flower stem half a dozen times 

 before it finally succeeded. (Fig. 1.) 



Moreover most flowers have the nec- 

 tar concealed where it is beyond the 

 reach of beetles, which, with few ex- 

 ceptions, have very short tongues; 

 consequently, they are usually found 

 on open flowers with visible or nearly 

 visible nectar, as the plum, cherry, 

 pear, shadbush, cornels, strawberry, 

 and goldenrods. On the meadow sweet 

 42 different kinds have been captured, 

 on the choke cherry 43, on the golden- 

 rods 30, and on the Viburnums 81, 

 while in Virginia 5S kinds have been 

 collected on the Jersey tea (Cianot/uis). 

 Truly the beekeeper would have rea- 

 son to be anxious if the nectar were 

 easily obtained in all flowers, for in the 

 case of the plants mentioned not only 

 are there many species of beetle but 

 the blossoms are loaded with their 

 numbers. 



Naturally beetles which feed on veg- 

 etation, since they are often in the 

 vicinity of flowers, are more likely to 

 visit them than those which are car- 



FiG. 3.— Flower-visiting beetles described in tiiis paper. Long horned beetles; 

 I. Let'tiirii vitata. 2. Tvpoterui vcliitiniis. ?. l.et>lura t\niadensis, 4. Soldier beetle, 

 thnNlibgrhtthu^ f>ennsvlvttt/ii'iis, 5 Blister beetles. Epifai/ta peniisvlvaNiia. 6. Tr'uhius 

 (TlTiiih. 7. Dontifia piiiatrix. 8. Blue-flag beetle. ^/('/;fj//v'rA«j 7'7///tf(-///wj. q. Rose-chafer. 



Mill rodai Ivtm snb^l'iiio^in 



nivorous; but this does not hold true 

 of the leaf-chafers, which are chiefly 

 night fliers and devour such an enor- 

 mous quantity of foliage that the flower 

 food available would be wholly insuffi- 

 cient for their wants. Some carnivor- 

 ous beetles, like the lady-bugs, show a 

 preference for pollen, probably because 

 it resembles the animal food, in its 

 chemical composition, to which they 

 are accustomed ; while others like the 

 wood-borers prefer nectar. There are 

 two very remarkable genera (Gnathium 

 and Nemognatha), which live wholly 

 on nectar, and have a long tongue like 

 that of a butterfly, except that it can- 

 not be coiled up, but must be carried 

 either in front of them or under them. 

 They of course are able to suck nectar 

 from tubular flowers (Fig. 2). At first 



KiG. 2— Beetles with a tongue like that of a butterfly belonuini; to the genus 

 Nemognatha. Among the loo.oonor more described species of beetles, only two genera 

 (Nemmniiitha and liiiiilliiiini) have a loiii;. snckiiic tongue. 



thought it seems strange that other 

 beetles have not also acquired a suc- 

 torial tongue, since it is common to all 

 the butterflies and moths; but probably 

 the beetles did not begin to visit flow- 

 ers until it was too late for them to be 

 easily modified. 



Many beetles pass their entire life on 

 a single plant species. The larv;e of 

 Donacia piscatrix mine in the leaves 

 and stems of the yellow water lily, 

 while the adult beetles flourish within 

 the floating flowers; another species 

 of Donacia attaches its cocoons to the 

 base of the stems of the marsh mari- 

 gold, and when the flowers open they 

 emerge and climb the stems and live 

 in plenty, half buried among the sta- 

 mens; the familiar asparagus beetle 

 eats the leaves of the cultivated aspara- 

 gus, and the beetles visit the flowers. 



The blue flag beetle t^J/o>io>iyi/ius 

 7'i(/pcc!i!us) passes its entire life on the 

 blue flag, and is most common during 

 the blooming time of the flowers. It 

 is inactive in the bright sunshine, says 

 Needham, and will dodge around the 

 base of the flower like a squirrel 

 around a branch when a hand ap- 

 proaches, but will rarely fly. " With 

 its beak it sinks a shaft in the nectarif- 

 erous tissue, nibbles a little, makes an- 

 other hole, and another and another, 

 until the nectar is left flowing from 

 many punctures, attracting swarms of 

 insects of all sorts." In one instance 

 while the weevil was gnawing a hole, 

 there were three flies facing it and an- 

 other on its back, "crowding one an- 

 other like pigs around a trough." The 

 eggs are laid in the seed capsule, the 

 larva- feed on the young ovules until 

 they undergo their transformation into 



