NOTES ON VARIOUS TRUCK-CROP INSECTS. 87 
some bear a single spot at the apex of the scutellum, while a common 
form has one apical and two basal scutellar red spots. A large por- 
tion of the lower surface is reddish yellow. The rostrum or beak is 
about half the length of the entire body. 
Mr. Thomas Belt, in his publication a referring to this bug as Pen- 
tato'ma punicea, states that on two occasions he found it sucking the 
juices from dead individuals of a "bright green rose chafer." Since 
the beetle was twice the size and weight of the bug, very active and 
taking wing quickly, he concluded, quite correctly, that "the only 
way in which the latter could have been overcome was by the bug 
creeping up and quietly introducing the point of its sharp proboscis 
between the rings of its body when the beetle was sleeping, and 
injecting some stupefying poison." In both instances the bug was 
on a leaf of a shrub with the bulky beetle hanging over suspended on 
the bug's proboscis. 
SOME WILD BIRD ENEMIES OF THE POTATO BEETLE. 
As the list of wild birds known to feed on the Colorado potato 
beetle furnished in Circular No. 87 is not quite complete, the fol- 
lowing note from a list compiled by Mr. W. L. McAtee, and published 
in 1908, is of interest. 
Speaking of the food habits of the grosbeaks, Mr. McAtee says: & 
"It should be noted also that several other birds, including the bob- 
white, prairie chicken, sharp-tailed and ruffed grouse, red-tailed 
hawk, nighthawk, cuckoo, crow, English sparrow, cardinal, scarlet 
tanager, wood, hermit, and olive-backed thrushes, and robin, eat 
potato beetles occasionally." 
June 20, 1910, Mr. B. A. Reynolds, of this Bureau, noticed a bird, 
which he identifies as the chipping sparrow, apparently capturing 
larvae of the Colorado potato beetle on potato plants in his garden 
at East Riverdale, Md. When observed it was flitting or hopping 
along the ground, attacking the "slugs" from the stalk of the potato 
plants, taking as many as four or five from one plant and then pro- 
ceeding to the next in the row. Later the bird crossed at different 
times to other parallel rows, repeating the operation. No other 
bird common in this vicinity is known to have this habit of running 
from row to row in garden patches as described, and although this 
bird is becoming common, as it was at the time of the introduction 
of the English sparrow, it has not been reported, to the writer's 
knowledge, as attacking the Colorado potato beetle in any form. c 
a The Naturalist in- Nicaragua, ed. 2, rev., 1888, p. 127. 
6 Bui. 32, Bur. Biol. Surv., U. S. Dept. of Agr., p. 47, 1908. 
c Mr. Reynolds also reported that Mr. B. C. Wheeler of the same place had a white 
rock pullet, an incubator chick, which developed the habit of feeding on this 
"slug." 
66513°— Bull. 82—12 7 
