122 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 9 



and sweet corn when no other food was available. Young plants 

 are often slightly injured by adults clasping their feet around the stalk 

 and piercing the epidermis, making six rather deep holes. 



Plants that survive or escape injury from the feeding of the adult 

 are subject to damage from larval feeding. While oviposition punc- 

 tures may not seriously harm the plant, yet the resultant larva be- 

 gins its damage by burrowing up or down from this point. If it begins 

 to work up it will finally turn and work towards the tap-root. The 

 larva, burrowing the stalk, does not always kill the plant, but causes 

 the upper leaves to take on a wilted appearance and the whole plant 

 becomes distorted. Infested stalks seldom bear ears but do produce 

 numerous suckers. 



Food Plants 



Larvce were not only successfully reared in maize, but also in cane, 

 kafir, sweet corn, and feterita. Adults likewise fed on these same 

 plants when confined in cages without other food. In the field, they 

 were found feeding on kafir and cane that had been planted on infested 

 corn land. In the spring of 1915, dead larvse and pupa? were found in 

 kafir stubs. A single adult was found by the author feeding on one of 

 the rosin plants (Silphium integrifolium Michx.) and one writer found 

 all stages, except the egg, of this insect in swamp grass {Tripsacum 

 dactyloides Linn.) . Continued search in this grass at Winfield, Kansas, 

 failed to reveal any trace of them even alongside of infested fields. 



Adult 



Upon shedding the pupal skin, the adult is fight brown in color, 

 varying from red to a whitish-yellow in the body sutures and striae of 

 the elytra, but after two or three days they become thoroughly pig- 

 mented, assuming a reddish-black color. 



In 1914, mature bugs were found in the field as early as July 29, while 

 in 1915, none were found until September 2. However, in rearing 

 cages in an outdoor insectary, they began to appear August 16. This 

 difference in time of appearance in 1914 and 1915 is undoubtedly due 

 to climatic conditions, the former being a hot, dry year, while the latter 

 was unusually cold and wet. Other differences to be mentioned later, 

 such as variation in length of egg, larval and pupal stages, can probably 

 be attributed to this same cause. 



In the fall, after becoming adults, many bugs emerge from their 

 pupal cells by gnawing their way out through the lower end of the corn 

 stalk, and it is claimed, but not corroborated, that they pass the winter 

 in the soil. Adults were kept alive for over a month in soil where they 

 often formed cells by compacting the earth around them. The 

 majority of adults, however, pass the winter in pupal cells con- 



