288 



MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



the first indication one will have of the presence of these bill-bugs in 

 the corn field will be the peculiarly shaped and located holes through 

 the leaves. The bill-bugs may eat several holes through the leaves 

 and stem, as above described, and in that case may kill the plant outright. 

 These bill-bugs may be observed at work in the corn field with their heads 

 downward, where they will not be easily disturbed. 



The injury which these beetles do by thus eating through and 

 hollowing out the young corn stalk varies from complete destruction 

 of the corn, even of the second and third plantings, to scarcely a notice- 

 able damage, depending a great deal upon the amount of injury, the 

 fertility of the soil and the rain conditions, as well as the number of 

 beetles which are thus attacking the corn. The most common damage 

 these insects do to the corn is to weaken it, so that it does not produce 

 ears at all or produces simply nubbins ; and also in so weakening the 



corn plant that it does not form proper 

 brace roots and is therefore easily blown 

 over, and when once down, does not right 

 itself. 



In a great majority of complaints we 

 have received from these insects, the in- 

 jury has come to corn in low lands that 

 have been recently drained, and the large 

 swamp grasses, sedges, etc., that have 

 been growing for years in great abun- 

 dance and have harbored these insects, 

 has recently been plowed under and put 

 in corn. Occasionally, however, com- 

 plaints have come in where injury has 

 been caused by one of these bill-bugs, 

 viz., S. parvuliis, on high, well drained 

 timothy and bluegrass pastures. This 

 insect, viz., ^. pm-vulus, is a small bill- 

 Fig. 4 e.-The com Bin-Bug. Spfcerio- bug, and is able to live in the larval con- 



phorus pertinax. Adult Beetles; en- ^j^j^^ j^ ^j^^ ^^^^j^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^f ^j^^^^j^^^, ^^^ 



even blugrass. The other species, however, are much larger and live in 

 the bulbous roots of the larger swamp grasses, sedges, rushes, reeds, etc. 

 It is not an uncommon thing to have reports from corn in low lands to 

 the effect that fifty per cent of the corn is a total loss, judging from what 

 the field would produce under normal conditions without the presence 

 of these insects. 



The only satisfactory method of preventing injury by these corn bill- 

 bugs, which, as I say, is confined to corn entirely, and only by the work 



