PKEDACEOUS INSECTS. 



279 



J 



The dragon flies (fig. J, page 293) which hawk in the sunlight are catching 

 small flying insects and must account for a vast number of the smaller forms 



of insect life daily. The praying mantises 

 are common in jungle and bushy vegetation, 

 where they wait for butterflies and other 

 large insects. The ant-lion in its pit destroys 

 the smaller creatures that walk on the soil. 

 Wasps when hungry catch caterpillars 

 and eat them; the Mantispa and the 

 Pa nor pi ds lurk in the deep woods and 

 jungles, hunting down the weaker flying 

 insects for their food. Everywhere on 

 the soil are the ground beetles, the flat 

 dark beetles which live wholly by their 

 prey and which gather so abundantly 

 where insects abound. Even underground 

 the mole cricket and the bherwa drive their 

 tunnels, seeking out the grubs and other 

 insects hiding there. In the bark of trees 

 are many beetles, wholly carnivorous and 

 devouring the many forms of insect life 

 that dwell there. Even the plant-feeding 

 caterpillar is in some cases predaceous, the 

 caterpillar of one butterfly 1 and several 

 moths * feeding upon mealy bugs. Among the flies the big hairy 

 robber-flies are predaceous and catch grasshoppers, bees, wasps, and 

 other strong insects. Many other Dipt era are predators, as are a large 

 part of the '_ bugs, distinguishable by their curved beaks. The total list 

 would be a very long one and embrace parts of the large orders and of 

 very many families. 



Predaceous insects are common everywhere and in every possible 

 situation where other insects get food. They cannot always be identified 

 as predators until their habits are accurately studied, and one cannot at 

 sight recognise a predaceous from a herbivorous insect in every case. 



To the observer of nature, these insects are of interest, and the 

 deeper one looks the more one feels the wonder of that balance of life 

 which is apparently so evenly maintained. It is very rarely that an 

 insect becomes abundant and for the time outwits its foes ; the more it 

 does so, the more do its foes prosper till they reduce it to its level ; nor do 



epius F. (Lyceenidfle.) | a Eublemma p.> (Noctuidce), & Various Tineidse. 



KIG. 345. 

 A Praying Mantis. 



