196 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



founded together! And the strangest thing of 

 all is, that the very same persons who confound 

 together these very dissimilar insects, will yet 

 have no difficulty whatever in distinguishing 

 between a pie-bald horse and a pic-bald cow, 

 and are uot at all likely to undertake to milk the 

 horse or to yoke up the cow in their buggy ! 



From the fact that the Insidious Flower-bug 

 never occurs in large numbers in any particular 

 location, although it is very generally to be met 

 with on a great variety of plants, we have for 

 several years back been inclined to suspect, that 

 it is not a vegetable-feeder but a cannibal. This 

 opinion was strengthened by the structure of its 



[Fig. 139 ] 



beak (Fig. :;!'J, 6), 

 which like that of 

 the great JiCihiviits 

 family of the Ilalf- 

 winged Bugs (see 

 Fig. 44, b, p. 47), 

 all of which family 

 are cannibals, is 

 short and three-jointed; whereas that of the 

 Great Capsus family, to which our insect 

 bears a strong general resemblance and which 

 arc almost universally vegetable-feeders, is long 

 and four-jointed. This last remark also applies 

 to the beak of the closely-allied Lygceus family 

 among the Half-winged Bugs, which is likewise, 

 as may be seen from examining the beak of the 

 Chinch Bug (Fig. 139, «); ^ species belonging 

 to this same Lygceus family, not short and three- 

 jointed but long and four-jointed. The opinion 

 that the Insidious Flower-bug, and two other 

 species belonging to the same genus {Antho- 

 coris muscxdus, Say and Anth. n. sp.?), which 

 like the first arc never met with in any consid- 

 erable numbers, are in reality Cannibals, has 

 been further coiilirmed by sundry observations 

 which it would be tedious to parliiularize liere. 

 And we have been linally convinced that this is 

 the case, by ascertaining that two European 

 species of this genus {Anth. nemorum, Linn, 

 and Anth. minutus Linn.) have been well known 

 in Europe for a long time to prey upon plant- 

 lice, " the perfect insects," as Curtis says, "in- 

 habiting flowers and the immature ones running 

 .about in search of the plant-lice, which they 

 transfix with their sharp beak." * The second 

 of these two Transatlantic species so closely 

 resembles our Insidious Flower-bug, that it 

 might be a question with some whether they 

 are not identically the same ; still there arc, in 

 our opinion, sufficient characters to distinguish 

 them as separate species. 

 The figures given above will, we think, be 



'CuTtis's Farm Insects, 



amply sufficient to enable the intelligent farmer 

 to tell the difference between the Insidious 

 Flower-bug, which doubtless preys upon the 

 Chinch bug and upon a variety of other plant- 

 feeding insects, and which is consequently one 

 of the best friends the farmer has got, and that 

 miserable little skunk in the world of insects, 

 the true Chinch Bug, which as every one 

 knows is one of the very bitterest enemies 

 of the grain-growing farmer. It is very trne 

 that, practically, it will be found almost 

 impossible to separate the sheep from tlie 

 goats, and spare the lives of the former while 

 condemning to destruction the unsavory little 

 carcases of the latter. Still, it will be some 

 comfort to the grain grower, when at some 

 future day he may discover his small grain or 

 his corn to be alive with Chinch Bugs, to perceive 

 the bright orange-colored larvte of the Insi- 

 dious Flower-bug dodging about among the 

 blood-red or blood-brown larvie of his bitter 

 foes, and sucking out their life-blood with 

 ravenous avidity ; or to discover the little sIoav- 

 going larvas of the Scymnus group of Ladybirds, 

 with such dense and evenly-shorn masses of 

 short milk-white cottony threads growing out 

 of their entire bodies that they look like little 

 animated flakes of cotton avooI, crawling about 

 among the stinking crowd and making many a 

 hearty meal ofl' them, stink they never so badly ; 

 or, finally, to watch the lizard-like black and 

 yellow larvaj of the Spotted Ladybird, and the 

 Trim Ladybird, with their short, robust jaws, or 

 the greenish-brown larvae of the Lacewing 

 Fly, with their long slender sickle-shaped 

 jaws, running rapidly about among the hosts of 

 his enemies, and smiting them hip and thigh 

 without any more mercy than the Amalekites of 

 old experienced at the hands of avenging 

 Israel. He will then know that, even if he is 

 himself powerless to make head against a host 

 of minute foes, as numerous as the sand on the 

 seashore, and as destructive and irresistible as 

 the waves of the great ocean itself, Providence 

 has provided a check upon the unlimited in- 

 crease of his enemies; and that a Power which 

 is above us all and provides for us all, and which 

 alloweth not even a sparrow to fall to the 

 ground unless by His especial permission, has 

 said to every vegetable-feeding insect, through 

 the mouths of the various Cannibal and Parasitic 

 species which He has appointed to do His work: 

 "Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther; and 

 here shall thy proud hosts be stayed." 



"We suppose that there can be no reasonable 

 doubt that the common Quail of the Middle and 

 Western States {Ortyx Viryiniana), otherwise 



