14 



INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



many times been of great assistance in helping to rid a corn-field 

 of cutworms. The larvae of this insect are about one inch in 

 length, of a dark brown color, with the skin of a hard, horny 

 texture like that of the beetle. They have strong, prominent 

 jaws, and at the posterior end of the body is a forked appendage 

 looking much like another pair of jaws. It is not only surpris- 

 ing that these larvae will eat so large a number of cutworms 

 as they have frequently been known to do, but that they will 

 dare to attack such a formidable creature fully three or four 

 times as large as themselves, but their assault is sharp and 

 vigorous, and a single larva has often been seen to kill and eat 

 several full-grown cutworms in a short time. Many instances 

 of the good work of this beetle are on record, among which one 

 by the late Professor J. A. Lintner may be cited, where he found 

 them eating large numbers of the corn- 

 crambus sometimes locally known as the corn 

 bud-worm. Another somewhat larger beetle, 

 called by Professor J. H. Comstock " the 

 Searcher " (Calosoma scrutator) , and in fact 

 one of the largest of the family, is a brilliant 

 metallic green, bordered with a dark purplish- 

 blue, and has the good quality of having a 

 very particular appetite, causing it to kill large numbers of cater- 

 pillars, but to eat only part of each. 



While in the earth as pupae large numbers of the Colorado 

 potato-beetles are destroyed by members of this family, and 



gra 

 dis. (After Riley.) 



FIG. 10. The murky ground-beetle (Harpaltts caliginosus): adult at left; 

 a, larva; 6, head of same; c, mandible. (After Riley.) 



one species, Lebia grandis which is peculiar in that the wing- 

 oovers are somewhat abbreviated, thus leaving the tip of the 



