18 BULLETIN 892, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
A large red spider, Phidippus coloradensis Thorell, was uninten- 
tionally confined with several beetles. This spider seized a beetle 
and devoured it. 
CANNIBALISM. 
Occasionally, both in the field and in confinement, nearly full- 
grown larve have been found feeding on the eggs of their own 
species. This curious habit, however, is not common. 
FUNGUS DISEASE. 
September 4, 1909,a fungus disease, Botrytis bassiana Bals., was 
found attacking the larve at Rocky Ford, Colo. The diseased larvee 
were in pupation cells in a small area of moist soil in the corner of 
a beet field. Twenty per cent of the larve in this area were dead 
and covered with fungus, but very few pupe were affected. Since 
this disease was not observed in after years, it is evidently too rare 
to be of material benefit. ; 
TOADS. 
Common toads eat the adult leaf-beetle but have not been found 
in sufficient numbers on the infested areas to reduce the number of 
the beetles materially. A medium-sized toad was taken from a 
badly infested patch of sea-blite and dissected. The stomach con- 
tained 39 of the beet leaf-beetle adults, a convergent ladybird (/Zip- 
podamia convergens Guér.), a grasshopper, and several ants, ground- 
beetles (Carabidae), and click-beetles (Elateridae). 
POULTRY AND WILD BIRDS. es 
Chickens feed on the beetles readily and under certain conditions 
may be utilized as a means of controlling this leaf-beetle. This is 
demonstrated by the following experiment: On one occasion a flock 
of chickens was turned into a badly infested field of beets at Rocky 
Ford. That evening a chicken was killed and 431 beetles and a few 
larvee were taken from the crop. The chickens were allowed to re- 
main among the beets and two weeks later another bird was killed. 
The crop contained 250 beetles. 
The Bureau of Biological Survey has found specimens of the beet 
leaf-beetle in the stomachs of the starling (Sturnus vulgaris) and 
prairie chicken (Tympanuchus americanus) and of other species of 
the genus Monoxia in the stomachs of the northern and Wilson’s 
phalaropes (Lobipes lobatus and Steganopus tricolor), least fly- 
catcher (EL mpidonax minimus), English and vesper sparrows (Passer 
domesticus and Poewcetes gramineus), violet-green swallow (Tachy- 
cineta thalassina), and pipit (Anthus rubescens). 
January 23, 1912, a flicker (Colaptes auratus) was observed 
scratching in a tuft of grass under which a number of beetles were 
in hibernation, but there was no positive evidence that the bird ate 
any of the beetles. 
