GARDEN FRIENDS. 



115 



who have little or no knowledge of entomology, 

 are in the habit of killing every creature that 

 creeps, crawls, runs, or flies. They reason that 

 because they live and breed, it may be, amongst 

 plants, therefore they must feed upon some- 

 thing. Knowing nothing of the history of 

 insects and various other of the lower orders of 

 animals, it never occurs to them to distinguish 

 between carnivorous species and purely vege- 

 table-feeders. There are, of course, exceptional 

 cases of species that are destructive both to 

 animal and vegetable life, such as wasps, ear- 

 wigs, and certain beetles ; and some of the latter 

 occur in tribes or families, the most of whose 

 members are carnivorous or predaceous. Whether 

 such insects are to be classed as friends or foes 

 will depend upon the amount of good or injury 

 respectively which they effect in gardens, and 

 the same calculation and definition will apply 

 equally to all other animals whatsoever. 



Bees. — Notwithstanding the tirade occasion- 

 ally got up on the part of some writers against 

 bees for the injury they cause in fields and 

 gardens, there is a great amount of evidence 

 that they are generally beneficial rather than 

 otherwise by being active agents in the dis- 

 persal of pollen, thus ensuring the fertilization 

 or cross-fertilization of a large number of showy, 

 or even useful garden plants, and thereby mak- 

 ing fruit and seed more plentiful than if such 

 were left to their own resources. The number | 

 of plants that are benefited in this way is too 

 great to admit of naming here, but fruit trees 

 and bushes, and the Cabbage tribe in spring, 

 Raspberries, Sweet-peas, and a host of annuals 

 and perennials in summer, may be mentioned 

 as instances. It is better to study the matter 

 specifically before making adumbrations of 

 praise or blame, and before launching out general 

 accusations upon the results of a few hasty 

 observations. The most important or serious 

 charge that has been brought home to bees is 

 that they pierce the calyx of Broad and Long- 

 pod Beans and Scarlet-runners in order to extract 

 the nectar, thus frustrating the production of 

 a part of the crop. Various garden plants of 

 less importance, such as Salvias, Larkspurs, Com- 

 frey, and other long-tubed flowers, are served in 

 the same way during dry weather. The honey- 

 bee (Apis melifica), and two of the humble-bees 

 (Bonibus terrestris and B. lucorum), are equally 

 blameworthy in this respect. They must be 

 kept out of Orchid houses to prevent the ferti- 

 lization of the flowers. 



Beetles. — The Devil's Coach-horse (Ocypus 

 olens), also known as the Fetid Rove-beetle, is 



one of the British species belonging to the genus. 

 When full grown it is 11 to 14 lines long, dull, 

 deep-black, very narrow, with a large head and 

 very short wing-cases, but well-developed wings, 

 neatly tucked up under the cases except when 

 flying. Amongst beetles it is a very ferocious 



Tig. 150.— Devil's Coach-horse, or Fetid Rove tOcypus olens). 



1. Larva, 2. Full-grown beetle on the wing. 3. Head enlarged, showing 



the powerful jaws. 



creature, and preys upon insects utterly regard- 

 less of size, and will attack any enemy. With 

 its great jaws it can clip earwigs into pieces, 

 and devour the soft parts with the greatest of 

 ease. If alarmed or molested even with a stick, 

 it will bite at the latter with great ferocity, 

 raising the tail over its head like a scorpion, and 

 discharging a fluid of disgusting odour from 

 two bags at the hinder end, and refuses to run 

 away like most beetles. What Homer said of 

 the Greeks applies very well in this case, 

 namely : 



" None turn their backs to mean, ignoble flight, 

 Slowly they retreat, and e'en retreating fight". 



The larva is active all through life, and diners 

 from the adult merely in being smaller, more 

 shining, and in the absence of wings. It also 

 feeds on insects, and on its own kind if pressed 

 for food. This beetle may be found at any 

 time of the year except May, when it pupates, 

 but is most common in autumn. In spite of its 

 forbidding appearance this is a real friend, and 

 should never be destroyed. The Glow-worm 

 (Lampyris noctiluca) is. another friend. The male 

 is brownish-yellow, with well-developed, darker 

 wing-cases and wings; but the female is entirely 

 wingless, and the larva resembles her. It is 

 active, and feeds upon snails by crawling into 

 the shell and devouring the soft parts. The 

 Ground Beetles, with one .exception, perhaps, 

 that need not trouble the gardener, are pre- 

 daceous, and should never be destroyed. The 

 Violet Ground Beetle (Carabus violaceus) is a 

 large, verj^ common, and typical example of a 

 family of predaceous land beetles that may very 

 often be found under stones and clods of earth 



