96 STRAWBERRY. 



the ripe Strawberry fruit. On investigation, Dr. Eitzema Bo3 found 

 that twenty-five of the specimens were of the species Harpaliis ruji- 

 coniis, F., and one of the species Harpalus cenexis, F.* 



In Curtis's 'Farm Insects,' pp. 217, 218, he gives an account of 

 his own observation of this same species of beetle about sunset on a 

 hot day in July, 1848, on ears of Wheat in a field at Hayes, Middlesex; 

 he describes them as "running up the stalks, and their great delight 

 was to get to the tip of the ear, where they moved their heads as if 

 about to feed." 



In the notes by Prof. S. A. Forbes, U.S.A., of the result of his 

 examinations of food of predacious beetles from dissection and study 

 of contents,! he notes : — " It appears that so far as the specimens of 

 the three species of Harpalus examined showed, only about one-eighth 

 of it consisted of animal matter ; pollen of flowers, tissue of grasses, 

 and fungi being amongst the component parts of the vegetable food." 



The first two items of the vegetable food are presumably what 

 were being sought for by John Curtis's H. ruficornis. 



The vegetable-eating powers of the Pterostichus (or Steropus) madidus 

 were brought under my own notice in 1885 (see my ' Ninth Eeport on 

 Injurious Insects,' pp. 51 — 53). In this case the attack was to the 

 upper part of young Mangold-roots, about an inch to an inch and a 

 half across at the top. 



Specimens of both roots and beetles were sent me by Mr. T, J. 

 Mann, of The Grauge, Bishops Stortford, Herts, the roots being 

 gnawed off near ground-level, and the workings being in patches and 

 chaunellings of very distinctive marking. The first beetles sent were 

 captured at 8 a.m. at work — in the act, that is, of eating the roots, — and 

 a second supply was sent me shortly after, also caught early in the 

 morning in the act of eating Mangolds. The damage was great, for 

 the beetles were numerous, and was estimated as one plant in ten, 

 sometimes one in five. 



This attack is of serviceable interest as showing that this kind 

 of beetle figured at heading, is demonstrably at times a vegetable 

 feeder, as well as preying on insects ; this latter point there was also no 

 doubt about, as of two sent me alive, one killed its companion, and 

 -cleared out its contents. 



The point of their being caught in the very early morning is also 

 of importance, as this agrees with the recorded nocturnal habits of 



* See ' Kurze Mitteilungen liber Plianzenkrankheiten und Beschiidigungen 

 in den Niedeiianden in den Jahren 1892 und 1893,' von Dr. J. Eitzema Bos. 

 Separate imi^ression from ' Zeitschrift fiir Pflanzenkrankheiten,' iv. Band, 3 und 4 

 Heft. ; also ' Biologisches Centralblatt,' xiii. Band, Nr. 7 und 8, pp. 255, 256. 



t See 'Twelfth Eeport of the State Entomologist of lUinois, U.S.A., for the 

 year 1882,' p. 112, 



