Notes on Insectivorous Coleoptera. 
171 
Amara angustata . — One of this species, likewise taken 
in June, liad also fed on vegetation, as indicated by a few 
particles of parenchyma too far digested for recognition; 
but fully nine-tenths of its food consisted of spherical 
eggs, in different stages of development, many of them 
easily recognizable as the eggs of mites. The most ad- 
vanced embryos had six legs and a pair of large palpi; 
and, by the shape of the abdomen and the position of the 
legs, recalled the larvae of the spinning mites (Tetra- 
nychi). 
Harpalus penns ylvanicus DeG. — A specimen of this 
species taken running in the road, at Normal, August 31st 
had the alimentary canal well filled with vegetable tis- 
sues, some of which were evidently derived from the 
ovules and roots of grass. Among these were the tips of 
an ovule with the styles unbroken and the tip of a rootlet 
with the root-cap entire. A single mite was found, and a 
few acrospores of fungi. This beetles was infested by a 
large number of intestinal parasites of the genus Greg- 
arina. A second specimen had eaten similar vegetable 
food. Here a piece of the epidermis of a rootlet, still cov- 
ered with tricliomes, was noted, as well as several root- 
tips and fragments from the growingtips of grass. Pieces 
of the epidermis of grass with their peculiar zigzag cell 
boundaries, confirmed these determinations. A detached 
stigma of a grass floret and a few stylospores completed 
the food. A third specimen, taken at Normal on the 5tli 
of September, contained some vegetable tissues with 
spiral cells, the mandible and maxilla of an ant and vast 
numbers of minute, spherical corpuscles, which Professor 
Burrill regarded as forms of bacteria such as occur on 
stagnant water. This beetle had apparently skimmed this 
minute vegetation from the surface of some pool. The 
fourth specimen of this species, received in September, 
from Mr. Webster, who collected it from the blossoms of 
ragweed, I found to have eaten large quantities of vege- 
table tissue, the fragments of which showed branched 
bundles of spiral ducts with parenchyma between. These 
were evidently the bracts or other floral organs of the 
ragweed. 
