BEETLES AND FLOWERS 



enable them to suck nectar more easily. The soldier-beetle 

 may be found by thousands on the goldenrods, New Jersey tea, 

 linden, and wild hydrangea. (Fig. 90, No. 4.) 



It is evident that carnivorous beetles which seek their i)rey 

 on vegetation are much more likely to acquire the habit of 

 visiting flowers than those which live wholly on the ground. 

 In general, they feed more freely on pollen than on nectar, 

 partly because it is more easily obtained, and partl3% perhaps, 

 because it resembles in its composition the animal food to which 

 they are accustomed. Most, if not all of them, have acquired 

 the habit of visiting flowers independently of each other. 



The Phytophagous Beetles as Flower-Visitors 



But it is among the beetle families, which both in the larval 

 and adult stage feed on vegetable substances, that the habit 

 of visiting flowers has become most important. It is an easy 

 step for them to learn to live on floral food, although from a 

 great number of tubular flowers they are largely excluded. 



The click-beetles {ElateridoB) , of which 39 species have been 

 taken on flowers in New England, live under bark, or bask in 

 the sunshine on the foliage of trees and herbage. The leaf- 

 beetles {ChrysomelidcF) , one of the latest families to be evolved, 

 are of small or medium size and in both the larval and adult 

 stages are very destructive to foliage. It is only by the ex- 

 penditure of much time and labor that the ravages of the potato- 

 bug and squash-bug are checked annually. It is impossible for 

 this immense family to depend on pollen and nectar alone, for 

 the flower -food available would be wholly inadequate to their 

 requirements; but many species are occasional visitors to 

 flowers. 



Another great family of beetles are the Scarabseids, which 



189 



