As Prof. Uhler well says of the "stinging-bug": "It is very useful in destroying caterpillars and other vegetable-feeding insects, but is not very discriminating in its tastes, and would as soon seize the useful honey-bee as the pernicious saw-fly." And he might have added that it is equally indifferent to the virtues of our friendly insects like the parasitic and predaceous species.
We note, then, that this bug is not wholly evil, and as its destruction would be well-nigh impossible, for it is as widely scattered as are the flowers in which it lurks, we may well rest its case, at least until its destructiveness becomes more serious than at present.
| Fig. 126. | Fig. 127. | |
THE SOUTHERN BEE-KILLERS.
Mallophora orcina and Mallophora bomboides.
I have received from several of our enterprising bee-keepers of the South—Tennessee, Georgia and Florida—the above insects, with the information that they dart forth from some convenient perch, and with swift and sure aim, grasp a bee, bear it to some bush, when they leisurely suck out all but the mere crust, and cast away the remains. The bee which is thus victimized, is readily known by the small hole in the back, through which the juices were pumped out.
The insects plainly belong to the family Asilidæ, the same that includes the Missouri bee-killer, Asilus Missouriensis, the Nebraska bee-killer, Promachus bastardi, and other predatory insects, several of which, I regret to say, have the same evil habit of killing and devouring our friends of the hive.
The characters of this family, as given by Loew, one of the greatest authorities on Diptera, or two-winged flies, are prolonged basal cells of the wings, third longitudinal vein bifurcate, third joint of antenna simple, under lip forming a horny sheath, empodium, a projection below and beneath the claws ([Fig, 131, c]), a horny bristle.
| Fig. 128. | Fig. 131. | |