INSECT FOOD OP CARDINAL. 



19 



Pig. 12. — A bill bug (Spheno- 

 phorus). (From Forbes, Illi- 

 nois Experiment Station.) 



voured by 13 cardinals. Two species (Sphenophorus cariosus and 



S. compressirostris) were identified. 

 Lamellicorn or scarabseid beetles are 



next in importance to weevils in the beetle 



diet of the cardinal. They were eaten by 



77 birds and compose 2.56 percent of the 



annual food. Many of them feed on ex- 



crementitious matter and are of neutral 



economic significance ; but few of these are 



consumed by the bird. Those secured in- 

 clude the common road-frequenting dung 



beetles, which were captured by 6 cardi- 

 nals, and the large resplendant scavenger 



Phanmus camifex. 



Other species in this family, however, 



are not so harmless as the above. The 



spotted vine-chafer {Pelidnota punctata), 



which is an important grape pest in the 



eastern United States, the two-spotted 



Anomala, which also devours the foliage 



of the grape, and the cetonias {^Euphoria 



inda, fig, 15 ; E. fulgida, et al.), which feed 



upon all sorts of flowers and sometimes on young Indian corn, are all 



accepted as food by the cardinal. The southern June beetle or figeater 



{Allorhina nitida, fig. 

 13), which causes con- 

 siderable damage in 

 Florida and Neighbor- 

 ing States, was found in 

 a few stomachs; but 

 since the cardinal 

 evinces a strong prefer- 

 ence for large insects 

 and. abounds in this 

 beetle's favorite home, 

 many of them, no doubt, 

 are devoured. Of great- 

 est interest in this fam- 

 ily are the rose-chafers 

 {Macrodactylus subspi- 

 ( From Howard, nosM,fig. 14.) These bee- 

 tles are so abundant at 



times, says Prof. J. B. Smith, that they "ruin not only vineyards, 



but orchards and gardens, eating every kind of fruit and flower; 



Fig. 13.- 



-Flgeater (AllorMna nitida). 

 Bureau of Entomology.) 



