96 



Phyllodromia germanica (last year only). I have seen and captured 

 large and small kinds in my own bouse, but they never increase beyond 

 a few stray ones and give me trouble. The only kind of pyrethrum 

 powder I found effective is Keating's; the others only seem to intoxi- 

 cate, but not to kill. Neither fleas, bedbugs, ants, nor moquitoes appear 

 to be proof against its effects nor the minute pests infesting dried 

 plants. — J. G. O. Tepper, Adelaide, South Australia. 



INSECTIVOROUS HABITS OF LIZARDS. 



Our prettiest lizards are the most useful ones. Our three kinds of 

 horned toads are great eaters. I have never known one to eat anything 

 but live, moving insects. 



While the garden toad feeds mostly by night, the lizards feed by day 

 and bury themselves at night, both as a protection from nocturnal 

 enemies and to absorb moisture from the earth. Contrary to general 

 report, they do sometimes drink. I have seen pet lizards do so. A 

 large horned toad will kill a small snake, probably because the snake 

 would eat its young ones. The young — sometimes more than a dozen — 

 are born, each inclosed in a skin covering (some call it an egg). In an 

 hour or so this skin cracks and the young emerge looking just like their 

 mother and begin at once to eat minute insects that are so small that 

 they would not be noticed if one were not looking for them. 1 have 

 seen them eat bedbugs when a few weeks old. Our several kinds of 

 blue tailed lizards eat the most minute insects as well as worms so large 

 that they have to bite them off in mouthfuls. They dig about the roots 

 of plants with their tiny hand-like forefeet and bring out something 

 that makes a noise when they crush it, whether eggs of insects or hard- 

 shelled insects I could not tell. Like the horned toad, they are fly- 

 catchers, ant-eaters, and worm-eaters. It is often said that "blue- 

 tailed lizards are spitters and ought to be killed;" that u horned toads 

 are as poisonous as rattlesnakes;" that a the bite of a horned toad makes 

 a sore that will not heal." When I see the persecution that these harm- 

 less animals suffer, I wish that they could bite. Unlike birds, they 

 can not fly away, and they never meddle with fruit or grain. The pretty 

 leopard-like Holbrookia eats some herbage as well as insects. A baby 

 Holbrookia an inch long will eat an apple worm half an inch long. 

 When put in the flytrap cage these lizards first pick out the very large, 

 black, and bright-colored flies before eating the house flies. 



Dipsosaurus dorsalis eats herbage only. 



Crotaphytus is a cannibal, eating the young of the horned toads and 

 all kinds of insectivorous lizards. It eats herbage and some insects, 

 but no doubt does more harm than good. The blue-tailed lizards are 

 Onemidophorus and Utas. Natural enemies are cats, dogs, ground 

 squirrels, and chickens. Rats and snakes are very destructive to *he 

 young. These lizards could be shipped to any part of the United 

 States except during the breeding season — the middle of summer — and 

 I think could stand the cold and other climatic conditions, 



