PRACTICAL PAPERS—COLORADO POTATO BUG. 339 
we showed a specimen of the spined soldier-bug, said at once: 
44 Why, that is nothing but a squash-bug.” And yet in the 
eyes of an entomologist the squash-bug looks as different from 
the spined soldier bug as a cow does from a horse ! That our 
readers may see the wide difference between the two insects, 
we give by the side of the wood cut of the spined soldier-bug 
(Fig. 52 b) a correct drawing of the squash-bug (Fig. 53 a) and 
its beak (Fig. 53 b). 
The Spined Soldier-bug by no means preys exclusively 
upon potato bugs. We have caught him in the spring of the 
year sucking the juices of a wild bee (. Andrena ) half an inch 
long, and carefully holding it out at arm’s length all the time, 
so as to avoid its sting. He also attacks the green larvae of 
the native American Gooseberry Saw-fly ( Pristiphora grossu - 
larice , Walsh,) as we learn from a very good observer, Miss 
Marian Hobart, of Port Byron, Ill. And both Dr. Hull and 
Mr. Jonathan Huggins saw the little hero with his beak 
plunged into the body of a full sized Locust (Cicada,) and 
draining away its life-blood in spite of all its kickings and 
smugglings. We are sorry, however, to be obliged to confess 
that in Mr. Riehl’s potato field, near Alton, a single individual 
was seen in June, 1868, bayoneting a poor Nine-marked Lady¬ 
bird (Fig. 48) with his blood-thirsty beak. Perhaps, however, 
he was, under the circumstances, excusable ; for he and his 
comrades had almost completely cleared the potatoes of the 
Colorado gentlemen, and he probably concluded that the 
services of the Ladybird were no longer required there. The 
Spined Soldier-bug is very common everywhere in Illinois, 
Iowa and Missouri, but occurs more frequently on the trees 
than on herbaceous plants. We caught eight or nine of them 
in about half an hour off Dr. Hull’s fruit trees with his Cur- 
culio catcher. Another species of the same genus (Arma, 
near modesta , Dallas) inhabits, in the larva and pupa states, 
the nests of the Fall Web-worm (Hyphantria textor , Harris,) 
and slaughters the defenceless inhabitants without mercy. We 
have bred it from the larva to the perfect state, feeding it 
upon caterpillars. 
