MASON AND LEFEOY. 337 



Cantharidce. The economic position of these beetles is not 

 at all certain. Some may act as flower fertilizers, others feed on 

 locust eggs, and some are of medicinal value. Some certainly at 

 times do some damage to crops by the destruction of the flowers. 

 They have, therefore, been included as neutral. Birds seldom touch 

 these insects. Cantharis tenuicollis and Mylabris sp. are taken to 

 some very considerable extent by the two Bustards Eupodotis 

 edwardsi and Sypheotis aurita. 



Monommidce. Neutral. Monomma brunneum was taken by 

 Sturnia malabarica. 



ChrysomelidcB. -The leaf-eating beetles are injurious. Some 

 species, perhaps the greater number, are of no real economic im- 

 portance, but others defoliate plants that are cultivated and are 

 therefore injurious. They appear to be seldom eaten by birds, but, 

 in all probability, occurred in more stomachs examined than is 

 here recorded. They are in some cases softer beetles than most 

 and therefore more readily digested. The Rice Hispa-//. cenes- 

 cens was found once in Calandrella dukhunensis ; Oides bipunctata 

 in Coccystes jacobinus ; Pachnephorus bretinghami in MotaciV.a 

 alba ; P. impresssus in Cyanecula suecica ; Haltica spp. in MotacWa 

 borealis and Crateropus canorus ; Colaspopoma pulchtrrimum in 

 Sypheotis bengalensis ; other species not identifiable in Oriolus 

 kundoo and Merops viridis. 



Cerambycidce. The long-horn beetles are entirely wood borers 

 in the larval form. Agriculturally they are of little importance, 

 though many species are possibly pests from a forestry point of 

 view. They may all without exception be considered injurious. 



The Bamboo -borer Caloclytus annularis was found in Pere- 

 crocotus peregrinui and Tephrodornis pondicerianus. Wood-peckers 

 are said to take the larvae of Hoplocerambyx spinicornis. Other 

 Cerambycids were found in Perecrocotus peregrinus and Brachypternus 

 aurantius ; Apomecyna pertigera in Sarcogrammus indicus. 



Curculionidce. The Weevils are, as most common and widely 

 distributed classes of insects, taken by practically every insecti- 



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