1971] 
Sheldon & MacLeod — Chrysopidae 
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indicate the evolutionary loss of this ability, since the present ecology 
of this species provides adequate simple sugars from honeydew and 
seldom brings adults into contact with foods containing large con- 
centrations of starch. 
Notes on the feeding behavior of other Nearctic Chrysopidae. 
C. carnea is one of a large number of chrysopids which seem to feed 
opportunistically either as “leaf scrapers” or on pollen. Unlike such 
predators as C. nigricornis and C. oculata, which usually have 
numerous, obviously chewed fragments of cuticle in addition to 
pollen and portions of sooty-molds in their gut (figs, 3, 4), these 
non-predaceous species lack arthropod fragments other than lepi- 
dopteran scales ingested during honeydew feeding and the setae 
scraped from their own cuticle during grooming. 
By an examination of gut contents we infer the absence of pre- 
dation and an extensive reliance on the leaf-scraping habit in a 
rather large number of Nearctic species of several genera, including 
the close taxonomic relatives of C. carnea within the genus Chrysopa. 
These close relatives, which comprise the Carnea Group (Subgenus 
Chrysopa , sens, str ., MacLeod, unpubl.), include C. downesi Smith, 
C. externa Hagen, C. harrisi Fitch, and C. rufilabris Burmeister. 
The feeding behavior of C. co?nanche Banks and C. inohave Banks, 
which are western members of this group, have not yet been examined 
by us. Although C. rufilabris has been reported by Smith (1922) 
to be predaceous and to feed readily on aphids, we have been unable 
to confirm this. Our analyses of the gut contents of field-collected 
specimens of this species fails to indicate predatory food habits and 
we have not been able to entice them to feed on aphids in the labora- 
tory. Burke and Martin (1956) were also unable to observe feeding 
of C. rufilabris on aphids. 
Limited field observations on feeding adults and studies of gut 
contents of several species of Chrysopiella and of Eremochrysa fra- 
terna Banks suggest that these species feed exclusively on pollen. 
Acknowledgements 
We are indebted to D. P. Rodgers for his assistance in identifying 
the sooty-molds encountered in our analyses of the gut contents; 
and to R. B. Selander, J. H. Willis, P. W. Price, and A. W. Haney 
for their constructive criticism of the manuscript. We are also 
grateful for the use of the facilities of the E. N. Huyck Preserve, 
Rensselaerville, New York, and the Jackson Hole Biological Re- 
search Station, Moran, Wyoming where field studies of the feeding 
behavior of several of the species were carried out. 
