A SUMMAEY OF THE FOOD HABITS OF NORTH 

 AMERICAN COLEOPTERA 



HAEEY B. WEISS 

 N"ew Jersey Department of Agriculture 



The Coleoptera or beetles contain a very large number 

 of species and show a great diversity of habits. Most of 

 them are terrestrial and they live under almost all con- 

 ditions where insect life is possible. The economic status 

 of this group of insects is important. To the Coleoptera 

 belong some of our most pernicious agricultural pests 

 as, for example, the cotton boll weevil, which has caused 

 such ruin in the cotton belt, the Colorado potato beetle 

 with its familiar destructive activities and various other 

 species which attack forests and field crops with varying 

 degrees of intensity. However, many species of Coleop- 

 tera are engaged in useful activities and it is the purpose 

 of this paper to summarize briefly, and in a very general 

 way, the food habits of the families in this order. 



For the purpose of convenience in handling and for 

 the sake of simplicity, the families have been grouped 

 into a few important classes and the placing of each 

 family was based mainly on the predominating larval 

 activities of its members. In some families considerable 

 variation occurs in the food habits of the different spe- 

 cies. For instance, in the ScarabcsidcB, some are destruc- 

 tive to green vegetation and others thrive on vegetable 

 decay. On the whole, however, their activities are 

 saprophytic and for this reason the entire family was 

 placed in the group Saprophaga. The Staphylinidce were 

 placed in this group also, although this family contains 

 members which live in fungi, in animal and vegetable 

 decay, in the nests of ants and some which are predatory. 

 In quite a few of the families, the activities of the species 

 are practically identical. 



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