206 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 7 



that time. On this basis, Alabama's loss last year would reach close 

 to $4,000,000 for nutritive value alone. Certainly the protection of 

 corn against a large part of such loss would pay a handsome return if it 

 can be secured at anything less than an average cost of 5 cents per 

 bushel for the entire yield. 



The net result of these most common practices may be summed up 

 in one sentence: Not only do they fail to reduce insect injury to stored 

 corn, but in many ways they even contribute largely to increasing 

 that injury. The reasons for this conclusion will be shown briefly in 

 succeeding paragraphs and from the many observations and experi- 

 ments made, we shall attempt to formulate some recommendations 

 as to methods that shall have real effective value in reducing insect 

 injury. 



Some Preliminary Facts from the Life History of Calandra 



oryza L. 



Under winter climatic conditions, that are normal for central Ala- 

 bama, there is no reproduction among the black weevils during about 

 two months, ranging from the middle to last of December to usually 

 about the middle or latter part of February. Immature stages then 

 occurring in corn kernels develop very slowly, if at all. If unusually 

 cold weather occurs, temperatures going to 12° F. or lower, there may 

 be a very large mortality among both adults and immature stages. 

 When winter temperatures do not go below 20° F. the total mortality 

 may not exceed 10 per cent from the beginning of November to the 

 end of March. At the end of March, 1913, in examinations involving 

 about 7,500 weevils, only 11 per cent were found dead. Most of the 

 corn ears examined were stored with husk on and thus retained prob- 

 ably all weevils that had died thereon since the infestation began in 

 July or August of 1912. 



Oviposition is actively resumed in the corn bins with the advent of 

 warm weather in spring, by March or April at latest, and the first 

 real spring generation emerges usually sometime in May. Females 

 deposit eggs at an average rate of about four per day in hard corn. 

 Weevils leave the corn cribs and apparently go to the fields in large 

 numbers during the warm days from the middle of March to October. 

 The height of this movement, as shown by cage trapping tests, appears 

 to occur during July, by which time the second summer generation is 

 out in the corn cribs and the corn in storage is then usually in very 

 bad shape, while that in the field is in condition for attack. 



In the fields, however, we know of no spring breeding place. Weevils 

 may be taken occasionally in the field and they feed upon a large 

 variety of subjects, but normal breeding does not seem to begin out of 



