48 BULLETIN 862, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
FLIES (DIPTERA); AND ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS (HYMENOPTERA), 0.07 PER CENT. 
Most of the flies eaten by wood ducks were in the larval form. 
Larvae of soldierflies (Stratiomyidae) predominated, having been 
taken by 33 of the ducks, while the gnats and midges (Chironomidae), 
craneflies (Tipulidae), flowerflies (Syrphidae), and the Scatophagidae 
were sparingly represented. Ants were commonly eaten, but always. 
singly or in small numbers, never constituting a very large percentage 
of the total food. Seven genera were identified, Crematogaster and 
Camponotus predominating. Wasps (Vespoidea), parasitic wasps 
(Ichneumonoidea), sawflies (Tenthredinoidea), bees (Apoidea), chal- 
cids (Chalcidoidea), and serphoids (Serphoidea) also were occasionally 
taken. | | 
MISCELLANEOUS INSECTS, 0.97 PER CENT. 
Prominent among the miscellaneous insect food of the wood ducks 
were the caterpillars and chrysalides of moths and butterflies (Lepi- 
doptera), and the larvae and larval cases of caddisflies (Phryganoidea). 
One stomach examined contained no fewer than 85 noctuid moths, 
many of them with eggs. This family includes the cutworm moths, 
and practically all of its members are injurious to cultivated crops. 
A few Mayfly nymphs (Agnatha), termites (Isoptera), unidentified - 
larvae, pupae, and galls, etc., were included among the miscellaneous 
insects. 
SPIDERS AND MITES (ARACHNIDA), 0.63 PER CENT. 
The wood duck’s taste for spiders is quite marked. Several full 
stomachs from southern localities contained remains of from 20 to 40 
spiders, these in some cases constituting as much as 75 or 80 per cent 
of the contents. Leathery or silken cases containing spider eges 
occasionally are taken, and tiny water mites (Hydrachnidae) were 
found in 5 stomachs. ~ 
_ 
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMAL FOOD, 2.79 PER CENT. 
Contrary to the habit of most other ducks, the wood duck pays 
little attention to mollusks, probably because they are not plentiful 
in its usual haunts. A very few snails and small bivalves were found 
in the stomachs examined. Crustaceans (0.08 per cent) were also 
scarce, being represented by a few beach fleas (Amphipoda), sowbugs 
(Oniscidae), water asels (Asellidae), and occasional claws of crawfish 
(Astacidae). Remains of small fishes, found in 5 stomachs; bones. 
of frogs, in 2; 2 centipedes, and a few of the reproductive buds, or 
statoblasts, of fresh-water bryozoa, complete the list of food items. 
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