562 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXVI, No. 11 
If the cage containing the larva was not sterilized regularly and care¬ 
fully various species of tiny soil mites (Acarina) occasionally would be 
present in scattering numbers. 
A number of insects may be associated under normal field conditions 
with the larval and adult stages of this species and thus far a few of 
these, notably the larvae of a species of Calosoma, of Harpalus caliginosus 
Fab., and of an undetermined species of robber-fly of the genus Erax, 
are known to attack Eleodes suturalis larvae. Various species of field 
mice, snakes, frogs, spiders, and centipedes also frequently are associ¬ 
ated with the insect in varying numbers, but their presence usually 
does not appear seriously to disturb its activities. The pupa of E. 
suturalis sometimes has been attacked and killed by the ant Tetra- 
morium caespitum L., and the adult occasionally has been attacked by 
the ant Pogonomyrmex occidentals Cress. The adult is freely eaten by 
chickens. 
Barrows and Schwarz ( 1 , p. 64) in 1895, in discussing food habits of 
the common crow, stated that the finding of some specimens of the genus 
Eleodes in a few stomachs of crows from Kansas and Nebraska leads 
them to the supposition that if a larger number of stomachs from that 
region could be examined, specimens of this and allied genera would 
be found well represented, and they add: 
These beetles, so characteristic of the fauna of the arid region of the West, fulfill 
most of the requirements of insect food preferred by the Crows; they are terrestrial, 
large, hard, and possess a strong, offensive odor. 
The records of the Bureau of Biological Survey of the United States 
Department of Agriculture show that birds of the following species have 
fed on beetles of the genus Eleodes, the fragments of which could not 
be specifically identified though it is probable that some of them have 
been E. suturalis Say: Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos Brehm; hairy wood¬ 
pecker, Dryobates villosus L. (2, p. 15); sparrow hawk, Falco sparverius 
L.; road-runner, Geococcyx californianus Lesson; red-headed woodpecker, 
Melanerpes eiythrocephalus L.; mocking bird, Mimus polyglottos L.; sage 
thrasher, Oreoscoptes montanus Townsend; magpie, Pica pica hudsonia 
Sabine,robin; Planesticus migratorius L.; purple grackle, Quiscalus quiscula 
hudsonia ; Sabine, meadow lark, Sturnella magna L.; Arkansas kingbird, 
Tyrannus verticalis Say; yellow-headed blackbird, Xanthocephalus xantho- 
cephalus Bonaparte. 
The Bureau of Biological Survey has records of a number of other 
species of Eleodes which are preyed upon by birds. 
Riley (. 21 , p. 432; 22) records rearing a parasite from an adult of 
Eleodes suturalis collected by C. E. Ward, Belvidere, Nebr., on April 27, 
which later was identified as Perilitus sp. The edges and corners of a 
cigar box in which the host beetle had been kept overnight were lined 
with the elliptical whitish cocoons of the parasite. Nearly three weeks 
elapsed between the time the larvae left the host and the emergence of 
the parasites. A dissection of the beetle showed that most of the con¬ 
tents of its abdomen had been absorbed. Viereck (29, p. 561), in 1913, 
published a description of this species, naming it Perilitus eleodis (fig. 4), 
the type being reared from an adult of Eleodes suturalis collected at 
Argonia, Kans. The specimens formerly received from Belvidere, Nebr., 
are indicated as mostly stramineous. It was found that the species was 
closely related to Perilitus gastrophysae Ashmead— 
of which it may prove to be only a variety. . . . 
