MAY BEETLES. 61 



lus, and Anisodactylus. It will be noted, however, that none of the 

 species are ever represented by any considerable number of specimens 

 in a single stomach. Thus the bulk represented by the Carabidae is 

 much inferior to that of the grasshoppers and May beetles, and prob- 

 ably also smaller than that of the dung beetles. Carabidous larvse 

 were found only in two or three isolated instances. 



4. May beetles (Lachnosterna). — During a short period of the year, 

 commencing, in the latitude of Washington, D. C, at the end of April, 

 and in Maine and Michigan about a fortnight later, and extending 

 toward the end of June, these beetles furnish, as regards bulk, number 

 of specimens, and frequency of occurrence, the principal insect food 

 of the Crow. In fact, there are only a few stomachs during this season 

 that do not contain traces of Laclmosternas, while frequently large 

 numbers of specimens are found in a single stomach, and this often 

 to the exclusion of other insect food. This habit prevails throughout 

 the whole region 1 and would occupy the foremost rank in this enumera- 

 tion but for the fact that it is restricted to two months of the year. 



The fact that the Lachnosterna season coincides with the breeding- 

 period of the Crow deserves to be emphasized, and the principal, but 

 by no means exclusive, insect food of the nestlings may thus be said to 

 consist of these Laclmosternas. 



Laclmosternas are above ground only at night, when they feed on 

 the foliage of trees and shrubs: they hide during the day underground. 

 In determining the economic status of the Crow as an insectivorous 

 bird it would seem to be of some importance to ascertain how and where 

 the birds find these beetles. It maybe that only those are eaten which 

 during their nocturnal flight had been half eaten by bats and other 

 nocturnal enemies of Lachnosterna or which had been otherwise dis- 

 abled; or it may be that only those specimens are eaten which have 

 fallen into lakes or streams during the night and which are then washed 

 ashore in a drowned or half-drowned condition; finally it may be that 

 the Crows are able to discover and to dig out the beetles during the 

 day from their subterranean retreats. Xo direct observations on these 

 points seem to have been made, but I have no hesitation in accept- 

 ing the latter alternative, for the reason that it is an undeniable fact 

 that the Crows find an enormous number of other insects that hide 

 during the day under sticks, clods of earth, and other objects (e. g., 

 many of the CarabidaB), or in the ground at the base of plants (e.g., 

 the Curculionidae x>resentlyto ~\j Q mentioned). Many of the copropha- 

 gous insects, and more especially the genera Copris and Geotrypes, are 

 evidently dug out from their holes beneath cattle and horse dung. This, 

 of course, does not entirely exclude the other alternatives, and, in fact, 

 the often recurring presence of small ants in the stomachs seems to 

 indicate that the Crows also pick up dead or wounded Laclmosternas 

 which are frequently covered with ants. 



1 Even the single stomach from Kansas, collected in May (No. 15249), contains 

 nothing except a number of Laclmosternas. 



