1931 ] 
The Biology of the Mecoptera 
49 
fruits, and Miyake notes that several of his specimens fed 
on the petals of Sweet William ( Silene armeria Linne) ; 
in every case the entire petal was affected and later 
wilted. The sum of all these observations seems to me to 
suggest that the various species or species groups of the 
genus have widely different sources of food. 
The Bittacidse are essentially predacious and their legs 
are modified for grasping and holding prey: the femora 
and tibiae are covered with strong spines, the tarsal joints 
are very flexible, and the single tarsal claw can be bent 
back against the rest of the tarsus. Bittacus is a slow- 
flying creature and it rarely if ever catches prey in flight. 
It usually remains motionless under a leaf or twig for 
many minutes or even hours, until another insect alights 
within reach of its legs. Then it suddenly reaches out and 
grasps the victim with its tarsus. When the captured 
insect has been turned into a satisfactory position, it is 
carried within reach of the beak, which usually penetrates 
between the abdominal segments or at the junction of the 
head and thorax. Probably only the juices are consumed. 
Soft-bodied insects, like the Diptera, seem to be preferred 
as food, but Hymenoptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, and 
even Coleoptera are frequently taken as well. Miyake 
has found that the Japanese Bittacus will feed on dead 
insects, decayed leaves, and even soil. The process by 
which a slow moving Bittacus attacks and devours active 
or even stinging insects is a most fascinating one. A splen- 
did description of such an encounter between an Australian 
Bittacus and a bee has been given by Jarvis (1908) and is 
worth quoting in full: “Whilst standing by a large bush 
of Daviesia corymbosa, watching the number of specimens 
of bees that were attracted by the blossoms, I heard a 
sudden loud buzzing, louder than that caused by the con- 
tinuous murmur of the bees, and saw that a specimen of 
Bittacus australis had just seized a large honey-bee which 
was making frantic but ineffectual struggles to escape from 
its clutches. It had grasped its victim with both hind legs 
and was holding it as far as possible from its body, with 
the flexible tarsi wrapped around the unfortunate bee and 
