No. 115.] 109 



Mr. F. G. Sanborn is quoted in the American Naturalist 

 (vol. 1, p. 329), as ascribing much smaller game to this insect 

 than bees, wasps, and butterflies. He states of it: "These 

 insects have been taken in great numbers upon the linden trees in 

 the city of Bostou, and were seen in the act of devouring the 

 aphides which have infested the shade trees of that city for 

 several . years past. They are described by a gentleman who 

 watches their operations with great interest, as c stealing up to a 

 louse, coolly seizing it and tucking it under the arm, then inserting 

 the beak and sucking it dry.' They are supposed to feed also on 

 other vegetable-eating insects as well as on the plant-louse." A 

 figure of the bug accompanies this statement, and one is also given 

 by Prof. Glover (pp. cit., plate iii, fig. 13). 



Its beneficial character, in mitigation of its destruction of honey 

 bees, is also confirmed by the observations of Dr. Uhler, of 

 Baltimore, who represents it as very useful in Maryland in destroy- 

 ing caterpillars and other vegetable feeding insects, but lie is com- 

 pelled to state that it is not very discriminating in its taste, as it 

 would as soon seize the useful honey-bee, as the pernicious saw-fly. 

 Its hiding place has at times been observed to be in the axil of a 

 leaf or stem — probably on flowerless plants or when they are not 

 in bloom. 



Mr. B. D. Walsh refers to this species {American Entomologist, 

 vol. 1, p. 141) as common everywhere in the Northern States, and 

 found even in the streets of New York city. It was met with 

 by me abundantly in my collections in Keene valley, in August 

 last, upon golden-rod, as also in Long Lake (both Adirondack 

 localities), the preceding year. 



Prof. Riley, in his report to the Department of Agriculture for 

 1883, records the insect as destroying the imported cabbage butter- 

 fly, Pieris rapce. See, also, a notice of its habits by Prof. A. J. 

 Cook, in the Canadian Entomologist (xi, 1879, pp. 17-20), as "a 

 bee enemy," in which he describes the structural peculiarities of 

 its formidable raptorial claws and proboscis, by means of which it 

 so readily seizes and sucks the juice of the various species or 

 insects upon which it preys. 



Prof. Barnard has also given an interesting notice of it in the 

 Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, for 1880. 



