140 BULLETIN 1476, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGEICULTUEE 
The number of larvae taken by birds in the IS stations recovered 
was 17 per cent of the total larvae involved. Judging from direct 
observation and from the character of the work, it is believed that 
the downy woodpecker was responsible for most of this beneficial 
activity. Each of the stations mentioned above consisted of 60 
cornstalks tied to wooden stakes, simulating natural conditions, and 
containing an average of 27.5 larvae per stalk. In a similar experi- 
ment during the winter of 1923-24 an average of 19 per cent of 
the larvae involved were taken by birds. This series was conducted 
in 47 widely separated localities in the Xew England area. 
"With the exception of the somewhat local activity by woodpeckers, 
birds are not known to have exerted an important influence in reduc- 
ing the numbers of the corn borer throughout the infested areas as 
a whole, although the comparative ease with which insectivorous 
birds may secure larvae from collapsed and broken-over cornstalks 
and other plant material, especially during the late fall and spring, 
would appear to render this source of food supply very attractive to 
them. 
In one instance a robin (Planesticus migraiorius Linn.) was 
observed, late in the spring, removing and devouring loose larvae 
from a heap of cornstalks. Robins, grackles. blackbirds, and star- 
lings commonly frequent the vicinity of infested cornstalks and 
other plant material during the spring and have been observed feed- 
ing upon the larvae contained therein. Late in the spring many 
of the overwintering larvae are migrating in search of suitable 
quarters for pupation, and some of them are easily accessible to 
insectivorous birds. In several instances where infested ears of 
corn in the held were fed upon by crows, blackbirds, and pheasants, 
many of the P. nubUnlis larvae known to have been feeding on the 
grain disappeared along with the corn, but no direct evidence of 
ingestion by birds could be obtained. Most of this type of bird 
activity was observed in sweet corn during the marketing season 
and in field corn before the grain had begun to harden. During the 
spring and fall of 1920 C. C. Sperry. of the Bureau of Biological 
Survey, investigated the relation of birds to the European corn borer 
in Xew England and found the remains of one larva in the stomach 
of a pheasant iPhasianus torquatus Gineiin) and the remains of 
six larvae in the stomach of a single starling (Sturnus vulgaris 
Linn.). No other species of birds were found feeding on the insect 
at this time. 
OTHER PREDATORS 
Larvae of the coccinellid Megitta metadata ~De G. have been fre- 
quently found devouring P. nubUalis egg^ and larvae, and nymphs of 
the pentatomid Podisus placidtts I Til. and the reduviid Sinea dia- 
dema Fab. have been occasionally observed attacking the larvae. 
Many of the dead larvae found in partly or wholly decayed heaps of 
cornstalks in the spring, and in cornstalks or other plant material 
which has been buried in the soil, are frequented by mites, but it has 
not been determined whether these mites were the primary cause of 
death. Centipedes and the larvae or adults of several of the preda- 
cious beetles have also been found frequently in the decayed remains 
of such material. Whether any of these agencies were directly 
