430 University of California Publications in Zoology [ VOL. 11 



crickets (Gryllus pennsylvanicus) had been eaten within four 

 hours by that particular bird. Five per cent of the food for the 

 year is made up of crickets. Wood crickets, better known as 

 Jerusalem crickets (Stenopelmatus sp.), being less abundant than 

 the common cricket, are less often taken as food. 



Economic importance. Grasshoppers can be classed as injur- 

 ious insects. The extent of their damage can be traced to their 

 abundance rather than to the presence of any particular kind 

 of grasshopper. The species which most often become abundant 

 enough to cause serious losses in this state are the differential 

 grasshopper (Melanoplus differentialis) , the pale-winged grass- 

 hopper (Melanoplus uniformis), the devastating grasshopper 

 (Melanoplus devastator), and the valley grasshopper (Oedaleo- 

 notus enigma). All of these grasshoppers are destroyed in great 

 numbers by the meadowlark. The more abundant these insects 

 become, the more do these birds turn their attention to this kind 

 of food. Where grasshoppers are abundant, meadowlarks have 

 been found to average as high as fifty grasshoppers a day. (See 

 Bryant, 1912d.) As a grasshopper destroyer, the meadowlark is 

 unequaled by any other bird unless it be the blackbird, and then 

 only because of greater numbers of blackbirds. As grasshopper 

 outbreaks continue to ravage certain parts of the state each year, 

 the meadowlark performs a service to agriculture that can hardly 

 be overestimated, in that it helps to keep the insects down to 

 normal numbers, so that losses do not result, and prevents greater 

 losses by taking a greater toll at the time of an outbreak. 



Crickets are usually classed as injurious insects. The degree 

 of injury, as with the grasshoppers, depends largely upon their 

 abundance. Since the species of crickets fed upon by the mead- 

 owlark feed almost entirely upon plants and are often destructive 

 to grain, their destruction is to be desired by the rancher. This 

 is especially the case with the Jerusalem cricket, which is very 

 destructive to potatoes. 



Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths) 



The general law that birds do not eat butterflies to any great 

 extent appears to hold good in the case of the western meadow- 

 lark. (See p. 481). However, the following dependable obser- 



