1 882.] Economic Entomology. 213 
sure clues to its habits. Of this we have an excellent illus- 
tration in Miss Ormerod’s work. We find here the figures 
and description of Silpha opaca, a beetle which in France, 
Ireland, and elsewhere has been observed to occasion much 
damage to mangolds, beets, &c., sometimes ruining entire 
crops by devouring the leaves as they appear above the 
ground. Yet this creature, which thus proves itself abun- 
dantly herbivorous, if not an absolute vegetarian, belongs 
to a group of carrion-feeders which may be called inseCt 
representatives of the vulture or the hyaena. One of its 
near kindred, further, Silpha quadripunctata , feeds almost 
exclusively upon living prey in the shape of caterpillars, &c. 
It is therefore instructive to find, in such a family, one 
member at least which is able to subsist upon the leaves of 
plants. 
Again, the Geodephaga are well known to be a distinctly 
carnivorous group of beetles, specially organised for cap- 
turing and devouring other insects. Yet, in the course of 
their researches, American entomologists have distinctly 
proved that several members of this group are clearly, if not 
exclusively, plant-eaters. Zabrus gibbus , a British insect 
belonging to the same tribe, appears to devour the ears of 
corn. We have observed more than one species of Carabus 
proper feeding upon fruit, and even coming to the patches 
of sugar smeared upon tree-trunks to attract moths — a repast 
of which even spiders will partake. 
Another consideration suggested by this work is that few 
insects — indeed few animal species of any rank — -are un- 
mixed benefactors to man. An insect may serve us by aiding 
in the fertilisation of the blossoms of our food-plants, or by 
making war upon noxious species, but may yet, at the same 
time, be itself guilty of more or less mischief. Thus we 
find here reference to the fact that the humble bees— with- 
out which some most important crops would be doomed to 
sterility — occasionally render the blossoms of the bean 
abortive by perforating the calyx so as to get at the honey 
within. The authoress, however, very justifiably doubts 
whether the damage occasioned is ever serious. 
Another case of the kind is that of the common wasp. 
Its depredations on the choicer kinds of fruits bring down 
upon it the hostility of the gardener ; and in many parts of 
the kingdom its numbers have been much thinned by the 
destruction of the queens in spring, when they are seeking 
a site for their future nests. But, on the other hand, the 
wasp serves mankind by capturing and devouring many blow- 
flies, and other Diptera, which one moment may settle upon 
