46 NATURAL ENEMIES OF INSECTS 
Scores of species depend largely on insects for their food during a part 
of the year, if not throughout all of it. Among our best friends are 
the swallows, chickadees, cuckoos, the kingbird, catbird, robin, blue- 
bird, and the woodpeckers; but this list is merely suggestive. 
Birds are peculiarly fitted for dealing with outbreaks of injurious 
insects. Possessed of the power of flight they can flock to places where 
insect pests that they enjoy are in abundance. At the same time 
they are not bound to maintain a species at reasonable abundance 
in order to protect their source of food and keep it from disappearing 
entirely, as is the case with many insect parasites. 
Toads are entitled to prominent rank as destroyers of insects. The 
number of specimens consumed by them in a season is enormous. Other 
animals that live on insects to a considerable extent are skunks, moles, 
and field mice. 
Efficient enemies of aquatic insects, or of such as spend part of their 
life beneath the water, are various species of fishes. 
Predaceous and Parasitic Insects 
The greatest inroads in the ranks of injurious insects are made by 
other members of the same great class itself, by the predaceous and 
parasitic insects. 
In general, we speak of predaceous insects as those that attack 
and feed on other insects or animals of various species, but are not 
dependent on a single individual 
host for their existence. Thus 
Fic. 47.— Adult Braconid. 
Fic. 46.—A predaceous bug, Sinea An egg parasite. Enlarged 
diadema Fab. Original. and natural size. Original. 
