172 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



lULUS IMPRESSUS (?) IN THE CORN-FIELD. 

 • - lulidse are not insects, and my only hope of getting this note on 

 record is in that their work in the corn-fields of the Middle West may be 

 easily confused with that of several very different species of insects. 



In the autumn of 1882, when the larvae of Heliothis armiger were 

 very abundant in the corn-fields of Northern Illinois, I noticed that some 

 ears, instead of having been attacked at the tip, had been entered from 

 without indiscriminately along the length of the ear and directly through 

 the husks. In such cases the depredator had penetrated the husks, 

 leaving a neat circular hole about the size of a No. 4 shot. After reaching 

 the ear it continued to work inward, penetrating a kernel, and on reaching 

 the germ changed its course and tunnelled parallel with the cob, eating 

 out the germs of kernel after kernel in the row, or sometimes changing 

 over to an adjoining row of kernels. I soon found that depredations of 



this sort were not due to Heliothis, but to a Myriopod thought to belong 

 to this species. Here, except to the most careful observer, was an injury 

 caused by a single organism, whereas, in truth, there were two depredators, 

 and but one of them an insect at all. 



In early September, 1904, in a field of corn near Rdchester, 

 Minnesota, I was one morning astonished to find what seemed to be the 

 same species of lulus, infesting the ears of unripe corn in a different 

 manner ; in this case feeding on the green silk and leaving the ears with 

 much the appearance of having been ravaged by beetles of the genus 

 Epicauta, or Diabrotica perhaps, or even grasshoppers. There was 

 hardly a hill of corn to be found that did not show evidences of haviiig 

 been ravaged, in many cases the ears being entirely denuded of silk. At 

 this time, about 9 a.m., as many as four of the lulus were to be found in 

 the silk of belated ears, sometimes eating off the silk to the kernels, but in 

 no case were they observed to attack the latter. From the fact that many 

 'of the creatures had seemingly finished their breakfast, and were to be 

 found on the leaves or among the husks, and, later in the day, none were 

 to be found feeding, it is possible that they depredate only in the cool of 

 the day. Mr. Chas. N. Ainslie, of Rochester, who was with me at the 

 time, made some later observations for me, and wrote me afterwards that 

 they were even more plentiful than when I was there, he having found as 

 many as ten individuals within a radius of fifteen inches about one hill of 

 corn, their numbers being greatest near the margin of the field. In the 

 case of Mr. Ainslie, the observations were made toward evening, thus 

 indicating crepuscular habits. 



It is quite possible this may prove to be some other species than 

 Tulus impresstis, but it is the very common species of the Middle West, 

 and its work may be easily mistaken for that of insects. 



F. M. Webster, Urbana, 111. 



