INSECTS INJURIOUS TO CORN. 265 



These grub may be so numerous in sod land that a single cubic foot 

 of earth will contain a dozen or more of them. However, one rarely 

 notices the presence of these grub in the pasture or grass field except 

 under certain climatic conditions, as would occur when a severe drought 

 appears. The damage, however, exists, but is not taken into account 

 largely because we are accustomed to great loss in grass fields by these 

 insects. It is when the grass field is plowed and sown to corn or other 

 grains that we notice the serious damage from these white grub. They 

 are deprived to a large extent of their abundant supply of food, and we 

 have substituted in its place a comparatively small amount of food in the 

 shape of corn plants. The white grub then begin to feed upon the roots 

 of the corn plant soon after it germinates, and by eating off the tap root 

 in the beginning, and ultimately all the roots, they seriously hamper the 

 growth of the young corn plant, making a stunted, unhealthy stalk, 

 which will either not properly mature an ear of corn, or will kill it out- 

 right, as the case may be, sometimes 

 killing the plants before they are a, 

 foot high ; at other times injuring 

 them so that they will grow to 

 a nearly normal condition but will 

 not make the proper amount of corn. 

 One serious drawback to the pres- 

 ence of these white grub feeding 

 upon the roots of corn is that they 



prevent the roots from growing Fig. 27. — one of Uie White Grubs, 



Lachnosterna rugosa, Larva or Grub; en- 

 down deep enough into the ground larged two and one-lialf diameters. 



to get moisture during the dry weather, and hence the plants shrivel and 

 die, or are greatly injured. By feeding upon the roots, they also pre- 

 vent the corn plant from sending out the proper anchor roots, and hence 

 the plants blow over with an ordinary stiff wind and do not regain their 

 upright position. 



- These white grub, after feeding upon the roots of various plants 

 during the summer and growing slowly all the time, at the approach of 

 cold weather burrow deeply into the ground, sometimes going a foot and 

 a half or so in depth and there remain quietly hibernating during the 

 winter, beyond the reach of ordinary freezing in this locality. The fol- 

 lowing spring these grub revive and work their way up toward the sur- 

 face, where they begin again to feed upon the roots of the various 

 plants that they are accustomed to. They thus feed another summer, 

 and at the approach of cold weather hibernate again, as before indicated. 

 The next spring they come up near the surface, feed for a time and then. 



