174 



numerous references to this phase see Caudell, Jour. N. Y. Ent. Soc, 

 1901, Vol. 9, p. 3. The young feed upon plant-lice. 



PHYMATID.a! 



Phymata fasciata Gray {wolffi Stal). Ambush or Stinging Bug. 

 (PI. XLII, fig. 4.) 



This is one of the most abundant and characteristic of prairie 

 insects. It was taken from the flowers of the swamp milkweed, 

 Asdepias incarnata (Sta. I, g), Aug. 8 (No. /i); among the same 

 flowers, at Station I, d, Aug. 9; on goldenrod, Solidago (near Sta. 

 I, a), Aug. II (No. 20); and again on goldenrod (Station I) 

 Aug. 12 (No. 43), in copula, and with an empidid fly in its clasp; 

 on flower of mountain mint, Pycnanthemum flexuosum (Sta. I), 

 Aug. II (No. 24); from goldenrod (Sta. I) Aug. 12 (No. 26); 

 in sweepings from the colony of Lepachys pinnata (Sta. I, e) Aug. 

 12 (No. 40) ; from the flowers of the mountain mint, P. flexuosum, 

 on the Loxa prairie (Sta. II) Aug. 13, with a large beefly, Bxopro- 

 sopa fasciata, in its clutches (No. 57) ; on the following flowers 

 (Sta. II) Aug. 13 — rosinweed, Silphium integrifolium (No. 48), 

 mountain mint Pycnanthemum pilosum and P- flexuosum (No. 52), 

 Culver's-root, Veronica virginica (No. 54), and rattlesnake-master, 

 Eryngium yuccifolium (No. 55) ; in the partly cleared area north of 

 Bates woods (Sta. IV) in flowers of the mountain mint P. pilosum 

 Aug. 23 (No. 146) ; and on the Loxa prairie, at telegraph pole No. 

 122,22) (Sta. II), on the flowers of rattlesnake-master Aug. 27 (No. 

 178). 



At May view, 111., in a colony of prairie vegetation, one speci- 

 men was taken by Miss Ruth Glasgow with the butterfly Pontia pro- 

 todice Sept. 26, 1912; a second had captured a dusky plant-bug, 

 Adelphocoris rapidus Say. At the same time and place Miss Grace 

 Glasgow took from a flower another bug with the bee-fly Sparnopo- 

 lius fulvus Wied. This fly is parasitic on white-grubs, Lachnosterna 

 (Forbes, '08, p. 161). Among prairie vegetation at St. Joseph, 111., 

 Sept. 26, 191 1, I took from a flower an ambush bug with a large 

 cutworm moth, PelHa subgothica Haw. (No. 302, C.C.A.). (PI. 

 XLIII, figs. I and 2.) 



Packard ('73, p. 211) records that Phymata fasciata had been ob- 

 served feeding upon plant-lice on linden trees in Boston, and Walsh 

 (Amer. Ent., Vol. i, p. 141. 1869) states that it feeds habitually 

 upon bees and wasps, and shows skill in avoiding their sting. Cook 

 (Bee-keeper's Guide, ninth ed., pp. 323-324, 1883) reports that it 

 destroys plant-lice, caterpillars, beetles, butterflies, moths, bees, and 



