428 YEARBOOK OF THE U. 8. DEPARTMENT. OF AGRICULTURE. 
These beetles and their larvee, known as ‘‘wireworms,” are among the 
most destructive insects with which the farmer has to contend. Pro- 
fessor Comstock says of the click beetles: 
There is hardly a cultivated plant that they do not infest; and working as they 
do, beneath the surface of the ground, it is extremely difficult to destroy them. 
Not only do they infest a great variety of plants, but they are very apt to attack 
them at the most susceptible period of their growth, before they have attained 
sufficient size and strength to withstand the attack, and often the seed is destroyed 
before it has germinated. Thus fields of corn or other grain are ruined at the 
outset. 
As there are over 500 species of snapping beetles in North America, 
it is easy to understand how welcome is any assistance in the struggle 
against them, and it is gratifying to know that the oriole is especially 
fond of them. 
The May beetles (Scarabeide) stand next to the click beetles in 
importance as food of the oriole. They were found in stomachs col- 
lected during every month from May to August, but only in May and 
June was the percentage important, viz, 12 and 7 per cent, respec- 
tively. The average for the whole season was 34 per cent. These 
insects consisted of the common May beetle (Lachnosterna), several 
species of dung beetles (Aphodius), and a number of the leaf-eating 
beetles (Dichelonycha). So far as known dung beetles do no harm, 
but the other two genera are very injurious. Leaf beetles (Chrysome- 
lide) are not supposed to be a favorite food of birds, owing to their 
disagreeable excretion, but they were eaten by the orioles in every 
month except November. In July they amounted to 8 per cent, in 
August 5, and averaged nearly 3 per cent of the food for the season. 
More than half a dozen species belonging to this family were identified 
in the contents of the stomachs. Among them was the well-known 
striped squash beetle (Diabrotica vittata), which in the larval state 
bores the roots of squashes or cucumbers, and when adult feeds on 
their leaves. 
Another member of the same family (Odontota dorsalis) feeds on 
the leaves of the locust, and in some places ruins the trees, while 
another of the same genus (O. rubra) feeds on apple trees. Both of 
these were identified in the stomachs. Snout beetles or weevils 
(Rhyncophora) form a small but fairly constant element of the oriole’s 
diet, amounting to a little more than 2 per cent for the season. In 
May they formed 5 per cent of the food, and then decreased to less 
than 2 per cent in July, but in August increased a little. All are 
noxious insects, and belong for the most part to the families of the 
curculios and the scarred snout beetles (Otivrynchide). Members of 
six other families of beetles were found, but not in sufficient numbers 
to be of economic importance, although it is interesting to note that 
one of the blister beetles was among the number.” As most of these 
beetles contain a secretion that produces blisters, it would seem to us 
that they must be rather disagreeable as an article of food. 
