388 FOOD OF INSECTS. 



a single species of insect only, which therefore they would 

 seem to have been formed for the express purpose of 

 keeping within due limits. Reaumur mentions having 

 once found in a parcel of decaying wood the nests of six 

 different kinds of Sphex, each of which was filled with 

 flies of a distinct species 3 . Cerceris auritus, Latr., and 

 Philanthus Icetus, Panz., in the larva state feed solely on 

 the Curculio tribe of Coleoptera, the latter being restrict- 

 ed even to the short-rostrum'd family, as C. picipes, rau- 

 cus, &c. b , while Bembex rostrata, another hymenopte- 

 rous insect, selects flies, as Musca Casar, &c. c 



A very large proportion of species, however, are able 

 to subsist on several kinds of food. Amongst the carni- 

 vorous tribes, it is indifferent to most of those which prey 

 upon putrid substances from what source they haveiaeen 

 derived : and the predaceous genera, such as Libellula, 

 Cantharis, Empis, Aranea^ &c. will attack most smaller 

 insects inferior to them in strength, not excepting in 

 many instances their own species. The wax-moth larva 

 (Galleria Ccreana) will for want of wax eat paper, wafers, 

 wool, &c. d : another Tinea described by Reaumur, and 

 before adverted to, attacks chocolate e , which cannot have 

 been its natural food, even selecting that most highly 

 perfumed ; and the Tineae which devour dressed w r ool, 

 but happily for the farmer and wool-stapler refuse it 

 when unwashed, must have existed when no manufac- 

 tured wool was accessible. — The vegetable feeders are 



a Reaum. vi. 271. 



b Entomologist-he Bemerlcungen (Braunschweig 1799), p. G. 

 ' Latreille, Obs. sur les Hymenopteres, Aim. de Mus. xiv. 412, 

 d Reaum. in, 257. * Ibid. Hi. 277. 



