RELATION OF MAMMALS TO INSECTS 



anteater of Australia, whose diet is suggested by its name, is a member 

 of the Monotremata, not the Edentata. The Australian duckbill, an- 

 other monotreme, also feeds upon insects, with other invertebrates. The 

 banded anteater of Australia is a marsupial. The American opossum, 

 another member of the Marsupialia, includes insects in its bill of fare, 18 

 and the South American marsupialian, Caenolestes, lives chiefly upon 

 insects. 19 Some of the Australasian phalangers feed partly upon in- 

 sects. 194 



Some species of Mustelidae (fur-bearers), such as the badger, 20 

 pine-marten, 21 mink 22 and weasel, 23 eat insects to some extent. Skunks 

 are particularly insectivorous, especially useful in the destruction of 

 grasshoppers, crickets and white grubs. 24 The contents of ten skunk 

 stomachs examined by Dixon averaged 26.3 per cent insects, mostly in- 

 jurious species, and of 353 examined by others under his direction, 

 207 contained insects. 25 Of 62 stomachs, grasshoppers and crickets 

 formed a large percentage of the food in half of them, while beetles 

 and their larvae were found in two-thirds of them, in many cases 

 being the only food. 26 The "largest part of the food of skunks consists 

 of grasshoppers, beetles, crickets and other insects and insect larvae." 27 

 In Manitoba it was estimated that on an 8-acre tract skunks destroyed 

 14,520 white grubs to the acre, and they have elsewhere proved active 

 enemies of cutworms, army worms, tobacco worms, potato beetles, 

 grasshoppers, hop grubs, range caterpillars and many other harmful 

 insects. 28 Plath considers skunks to be quite destructive to both wild 

 bees and honeybees. 29 



18 Hahn, ssrd Ann. Kept. Indiana Dept. Geol. and Nat. Res., p. 451, 1909. 

 19 Gregory, Journ. Mammalogy, in,. 106-114, 1922. 

 19a Ingersoll, The life of animals, pp. 495, 500-504, 1907. 



"Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 5, p. 85, 1891. McAtee, Ann. Kept. Smithsonian 

 hist, for 1925, p. 416. Bailey, Farmers' Bull, No. 335, p. 27, 1908. 



21 Coues, N. Amer. Mustelidae, p. 92, 1877. Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 49, p. 176, 

 1926. 



22 Ashbrook, Mink farming, U. S. Biol. Surv. Leaflet No. 8, 1928. 



23 Howell, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 45, p. 35, 1921. Stone and Cram, American animals, 

 pp. 236-237, 1902. 



24 Dearborn, U. S. Dept. Agric. Circular No. 135, p. n, 1920. Cuyler, Journ. Mam- 

 malogy^, 181-189, 1924. Bailey, Farmers' Bull, No. 335, p. 28, 1908. Howell, N. Amer. 

 Fauna, No. 45, 1921. 



* Dixon, Journ. Mammalogy, vi, 34-46, 1925. 



26 Lantz, Economic value of North American skunks, Farmers' Bull., No. 587, 1914. 



2T Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 49, p. 181, 1926. 



28 McAtee, The role of vertebrates in the control of insect pests, Ann. Rept. Smith- 

 sonian Inst. for 1925, pp. 415-437. 



29 Plath, The bee-eating proclivity of the skunk, Amer. Naturalist, LVII, 570-574, 

 1923. 



