348 Miscellaneous. 



previous publications of the Society, it is a book of sterling value, 

 and one that will be of the most essential service to the student of 

 British zoology. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Notes upon the Food of Predaceous Beetles. 

 By F. M. Webster. 



Pliny thought it nothing to the credit of the philosophers of his 

 day that while they were disputing about the number of heroes by 

 the name of Hercules, and the site of the sepulchre of Bacchus, 

 they should not have been able to decide whether or not the queen- 

 bee possessed a sting*. 



While the problem of the bee-sting has long been decided, and 

 heroes by the name of Hercules have ceased to trouble the minds of 

 men, there are problems of vital importance regarding the habits of 

 the insects which, during the greater portion of the year, we meet 

 daily in abundance, that still remain unsolved. 



The most important as well as the most abundant of these insects 

 are the beetles. 



AVhile found in almost every conceivable situation, while our 

 naturalists count the species in their cabinets by thousands, it 

 would be difficult to point out a single species the food-habits of 

 which we ftrlhf understand, when both the larva and imago state 

 are taken under consideration. 



True, we have a sort of ritual laid down by entomologists, based 

 upon the fact that certain species have been known to feed upon 

 certain substances ; but this can no more be considered as proof 

 that nothing else enters into their natural diet, than does the 

 meat of which we may partake at dinner prove us to be strictly car- 

 nivorous, or the bread or fruit, that we are exclusively vegetarians. 



An illustration of this double diet of beetles is found in the case 

 of the European Silpha opaca, Linn., the larva of which has been 

 known to feed to an injurious extent upon the leaves of the beet 

 and mangel-wurzelt. 



But one of the most fortunate in getting the benefit of our igno- 

 rance is the family Carabida?, to utter a word against which is 

 almost considered a sacrilege. 



But, true to the adage " murder will out," occasionally a species 

 is found feeding upon vegetation with a voracity that would do 

 credit to a Chrysomelid, Of these in Europe, besides the Zahrus g'lbhus 

 in both stages, some species of Pterostidms, Ar.iara, and Omojihron, 

 and Calathus latus, Westw., are said to injure grain by eating off 

 the young shoots or destroying the seed J. 



Two species oi. Bemhidium {lampos and monticola) have been de- 

 structive to the forests of Upper Austria §. 



* Pliu. Hist. Nat. 1. xi. c. 17. 



t Curtis, ' Farm Insects,' p. 388. 



J Report U.S. Agr. Dep. 1868, pp. 79, 80. 



§ Deutsche eutomologisclie Zeitschrift, 1879, p. 17. 



