388 FOOD OF INSECTS. 



to the short-rostrum'd family, as Otiorhynchus raucus, 

 &c. a , while Bembex rostrata, another hymenopterous in- 

 sect, selects flies, as Musca Caesar ^ &c. b 



A very large proportion of species, however, are able 

 to subsist on several kinds of food. Amongst the carni- 

 vorous tribes, it is indifferent to most of those which 

 prey upon putrid substances from what source they have 

 been derived : and the predaceous insects, such as the 

 Libellulina, Telephorus, Empis, the Araneid(je 9 &c. will 

 attack most smaller insects inferior to them in strength, 

 not excepting in many instances their own species. The 

 wax-moth larva (Galleria Cereana) will for want of wax 

 eat paper, wafers, wool, &c. c : another Tinea described 

 by Reaumur, and before adverted to, attacks chocolate d , 

 which cannot have been its natural food, even selecting 

 that most highly perfumed; and the Tineae which devour 

 dressed wool, but happily for the farmer and wool-stapler 

 refuse it when unwashed, must have existed when no ma- 

 nufactured wool was accessible. The vegetable feeders 

 are under greater restrictions, yet probably the majority 

 can subsist on different kinds of food. This is certainly 

 true of most lepidopterous larvae, several of which as well 

 as many Coleoptera (Haltica oleracea, &c.) are polypha- 

 gous, eating almost every plant. It is worthy of remark, 

 however, that when some of these have fed for a time on 

 one plant they will die rather than eat another, which 

 would have been perfectly acceptable to them if accus- 

 tomed to it from the first 6 . Here too it must be borne 

 in mind, that by far the greater part of insects feed upon 



a Entomologische BemerJcungen (Braunschweig 1799), p. 6. 

 b Latreille, Obs. sur les Hymenopteres. Ann. de Mus. xiv. 412. 

 c Reaum. iii. 257. d Ibid. iii. 277. e Ibid. ii. 324. 



