332 JOURNAL OK ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 2 



on sale in the ant infested region, and while extravagant claims are 

 made for them by their manufacturers, they are of little value aside 

 from use as repellents, in which classification they should properly 

 be placed. The prices charged for such poisons are usually out of 

 all proportion to their real value. 



Owing to the dangerous nature of the ant tapes and arsenical 

 poisons, it is our custom to advise correspondents that these be pre- 

 pared by pharmacists rather than by the inexperienced and labelled 

 with the proper precautions and directions for use. 



Baton Rouge, La., July 25, 1909. 



ELEODES AS AN ENEMY OF PLANTED GRAIN 



By Myron H. Swenk, Assistant State Entomologist, Lincoln, Neb. 



Within the past year a new insect enemy of planted grain has come 

 to our notice in the form of a tenebrionid beetle larva, which de- 

 stroys the seed in the ground before it can germinate. The work with 

 this insect having been continued for less than a year, the results are 

 as yet necessarily somewhat fragmentary, but similar depredations by 

 allied species on the Pacific coast, which I am informed by Professor 

 F. M. Webster are now demanding his attention, seem to make de- 

 sirable a preliminary report at this time. Our attention was first 

 drawn to this new pest by a letter received under date of September 

 22, 1908, from a correspondent at Beaver City in Furnas County, 

 Nebraska, complaining of numbers of these larvre in the soil which 

 were destroying the planted wheat in that vicinity, and a specimen 

 of the larva concerned accompanied the letter. A request to our cor- 

 respondent for more specific and detailed information elicited the 

 reply that the larvae were abundant in the wheat fields north of the 

 town, three or four of them to the foot in the drill rows, and in two 

 fields he knew of were doing a great deal of damage, so much so that 

 it would be impossible to obtain a stand of wheat. The situation 

 was apparently serious enough to warrant personal investigation, and 

 accordingly on the 29th of September the writer visited the locality 

 to look over the infested fields. 



The first field visited w^as one located three miles north of town, 

 where the larvae had been originally discovered and reported upon. 

 This field had been in corn the previous year. The larvse were found 

 abundantly in every part of the field, and about 60 per cent, of the 

 planted seed, judging from several hundred kernels collected in the 



