120 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [\'ol. 9 



A STUDY OF THE LIFE-HISTORY OF THE MAIZE BILL-BUG ^ 



By W.M. P. Hayes, Assistant Entomologist, Kansas State Agricultural 

 Experiment Station 



The maize bill-bug {Sphenophorus maidis Chittn.), a rhyncophorous 

 beetle belonging to the famity Calanclrida3, is commonly known in 

 localities where it does injury to corn as the "elephant bug" or "corn 

 bill-bug." Reports of damage by this insect in Kansas date back 

 twenty years (1895) . Although the species has been taken as far north 

 as the Kansas River, its injury to corn has been confined almost en- 

 tirely to the fertile river valleys in the southern part of the state. 



Previous to 1905, when Chittenden described Sphenophorus maidis 

 as a distinct species, the ravages of this insect were attributed to Sphen- 

 ophorus robustus Horn and Sphenophorus pertinax Oliv., particularly 

 the former. Thus the earlier references to this insect have been con- 

 fused with these two closely allied species. The earliest records of 

 this pest, in the Department of Entomology of the Kansas Agricultu- 

 ral College, date back to 1896-97 when, under the name of "elephant 

 bug," it was reported doing damage to corn on Wild Cat Creek, 

 eighteen miles east of Eldorado. Kelly (1911, Bui. 95, Bu. Ent., 

 U. S. Dept. Agr.), however, reports it one j^ear earlier from three local- 

 ities in Kansas. 



During the seasons of 1914 and 1915, the writer was detailed in 

 southern Kansas to study this and other injurious insects of that re- 

 gion. The results obtained during that time arc herewith set forth. 



Distribution 



Sphenophorus maidis has been recorded from the following places: 

 Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, Michigan, Oklahoma, 

 Arkansas, and the following places in Kansas: Augusta, Madero, 

 Florence, and Riley County. Two specimens were found in the 

 entomological collection of the Kansas Agricultural College, one 

 labeled "Topeka, August 11, 1911," and another labeled "Wichita" 

 with no further data. From these scattered reports there seems to be 

 no doubt that it is distributed over most all of the southern states. 



Since the study of this form was taken up, Sphenophorus maidis has 

 been taken in the following places in the state: Winfield, Arkansas 



^ Contribution from the Entomological Laboratorj^, Kansas State Agricultural 

 College, No. 15. This paper embodies the results of some of the investigations 

 undertaken by the author in the prosecution of project No. 92 of the Experiment 

 Station. 



