192 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETABLES 



The adult is practically omnivorous, its known food ma- 

 terials are legion, and include besides the pollen and flowers 

 and partly matured kernels of corn, wheat and oats, the foliage 

 of alfalfa, crimson clover, cotton, rye and tobacco. Of vege- 

 tables it attacks all forms. It frequently injures the fruit of 

 melon and other cucurbits. Larv?e or pupae have been ob- 

 served at the roots of corn, wheat, rye, millet, beans, rudbeckia 



Fig. 122.— Southern corn root-worm, a, Beetle; b. egg; c, larva; d, last segment of 

 same; e, section of cornstalk showing holes made by larvae; /, pupa, a, c. f, Consider- 

 ably enlarged; i, </, more enlarged; «, reduced, (a-rf, After Riley; f,/, redrawn, U- S. 

 Dept. Agr) 



and sedges. In fields of corn this root- worm gives origin to 

 the loss of roots, injury varying according to the age of the 

 corn and severity of attack, and somewhat also upon the con- 

 dition of the weather, and even of the soil. Injury is mani- 

 fested in various ways: from the death of a plant to re- 

 tardation of growth, or to what is termed "spindling," or a 

 yellowish, unhealthy look. In ])lants six inches or less in 

 height the perforations of the stalk (fig. 122, c) are character- 



