( !. I NSECT9 1. A !KN. 
23 
are not entirely useful, and that they sometimes attack cultivated ci 
has been shown by various authors. These insects tog ther make up 
only one-fourth of 1 percent of the food of the horned lark-, which 
may be -aid. therefore, to cat practically no 
insect- of value to man. Predaceous hectic- of 
one family. th«' Carabidde, live on the surface 
of the ground, where the horned lark- obtain all 
their food, and it i- strange that SO few are eaten. 
A- these insects are usually active only at night, 
and remain concealed by day, they are well pro- 
ed; but some bird- eat considerable numbers 
of them. Of the few found in the stomach- of 
horned lark- only one species, Agonodi rxispall ipt s. 
can be identified. This beetle(fig. 3) is known to 
feed upon the chinch bug, but about half of its 
food i- vegetable, partly grass seed. Its eco- 
nomic relation-, then, are about evenly balanced, and it- wholesale 
destruction would be a loss. Only l.~> of the 1,154 birds examined 
had eaten any carabids. and these insects represented but0.16 percent 
of the total food. Thus the destruction of these insects by the horned 
lark i- too slight to be noticed. Tiger beetle-, another group of pre- 
daceous beetle-, are also very scantily represented in the food of 
the horned larks. Although the lark- often \'n^\ on the sandy beaches 
and road- where these active insects are most abundant, only two of 
them had been secured bv the birds examined. 
Fig. 3.— Predaceous beetle 
i A go a ml i r u a pallipes). 
I From Riley, Bureau of 
Entomoloe 
Ki<;. t. — June bug i Laefmotterna arcuata) and Its larva, a white grub. 
Entomology. | 
I From Chittenden, Bureau <>f 
Taking up the injurious species, it was .found that several horned 
lark- had eaten click beetle-, both in the adult and larval stages. The 
larva 1 are the wirewonns which are injurious to grain crop-. The 
greater number of these were eaten in May. Among other beetles 
eaten, the dung beetles and other scavengers of the family Scarabxida 
are of little economic interest, and together with the leaf chafers of the 
same family they comprise a little over 1 percent of the food n( the year. 
All the leaf chafer-, however, which include the June bugs (fig. 1) 
