AMPHIBIA 317 



work of a species. Different members of the class may take 

 different species, and the data obtained should be applied to 

 solving the insect problems of the locality. 



Almost all insects come to the ground at some tune, 

 and we have, especially in the toads, a possible force of insect 

 police that ought to be better known and utilized. 



Commercial values. Toads are regularly sold in the markets of Europe, 

 being used by gardeners to control insect pests. 1 Is there any local mar- 

 ket for them? Could such a market be developed as a result of studies 

 and demonstrations to prove their value? The following numbers of 

 insects have been eaten by a toad at a meal or were found in a toad's 

 stomach : 90-100 rose beetles (Ellen M. Foskett) ; 55 army worms, 77 

 myriapods, 65 gypsy-moth caterpillars (A. II. Kirkland, in three stom- 

 achs) ; 24 gypsy-moth caterpillars (fourth molt), taken in ten minutes 

 ( Wilcox) ; 86 house flies, snapped up in less than ten minutes (Hodge). 

 From examination of 149 stomachs, Kirkland 2 estimates that a toad will 

 eat, in the three months of May, June, and July (why he does not in- 

 clude August and September is not stated ; these months would add 

 materially to the account), 3312 ants, 2208 cutworms, 1840 myriapods, 

 2208 sow bugs, 368 weevils, and 368 carabid beetles. Subtracting the 

 cutworms that might have been killed by the carabids, we have 1988 cut- 

 worms to the toad's credit. He estimates the killing of these as worth 

 one cent a piece to a gardener, and thus, for cutworms alone, the possi- 

 ble value of the toad's work is $19.88 for the season. Miller 3 is more 

 conservative and estimates a toad's work for a season at, possibly, about 

 $5 " for greenhouses, gardens, and truck farms " and not so much in 

 ordinary farming districts. 



Frogs, especially bullfrogs, are much more inclined to feed upon ani- 

 mals other than insects fish, birds, crawfish, and, above all else, upon 

 other frogs. This is the great obstacle to frog culture except on paper. 

 No matter how many we succeed in bringing through the tadpole stage, 

 we have few big frogs in the end. The difficulty in feeding frogs arti- 

 ficially is that they take only active, moving, hence living, food. It would 



1 Kirkland states (Farmers' Bulletin No. 196, p. 14) that English gardeners 

 pay $25 per hundred. 



2 Kirkland, Hatch Experiment Station, Bulletin 46 (1897), p. 27. 



a Miller, " The American Toad," American Naturalist, Vol. XLIII (1909), 

 p. 668. 



