128 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 9 



effective because many beetles leave the tap-root in early fall and, 

 as yet, their winter quarters are not definitely known. Moreover, 

 infested plants break off easily when pulled out and often, even when 

 the greatest of care is exercised, beetles are left in the lower part of the 

 tap-root. 



Swamp grass in and around infested fields should be destroyed as 

 well as volunteer corn or sorghums. As in the control of many other 

 insects, weeds, rubbish, and trash should be cleaned up to destroy 

 hibernation quarters. 



President Glenn W. Herrick: Any discussion of this paper on 

 the maize bill bug by Mr. Hayes? 



Mr. William Moore: I would like to ask Mr. Hayes if he ever 

 tried cutting stalks off quite low, if there was any difference in the 

 successful hibernation of the insects? 



Mr. William P. Hayes: In fact it is the best way to get a supply 

 of beetles, to pull up the roots in the spring. 



Mr. William Moore: The reason I ask is that in South Africa an 

 insect hibernating under similar conditions can be controlled if the 

 stalks are cut low. They freeze out when the weather is 15 or 20 

 degrees above zero. 



Pi^esident Glenn W. Herrick: Moths or beetles? 



Mr. William Moore : Moths, Secamia fusca. 



Mr. a. H. Beyer: In my observations in the south in one field in 

 particular where the stalks were cut low and lots of trash had 

 accumulated, I did not find any change. They hibernated as well in 

 the fields adjacent. 



Mr. Z. p. Metcalf: There is one thing that I would Hke to say 

 about a nearly related species {Sphenophorus callosus Oh v.) that we 

 have in North Carolina. In the fall of the year all the adults evidence 

 a desire to take to flight; at no other time of the year have we noticed 

 any attempt on the part of the Southern corn bill bug to fly, in fact 

 earlier in the season our mated pairs have frequently been left in open 

 cages for days at a time and the beetles made no efforts to escape. 

 This, together with the fact that the adults seem to disappear from the 

 fields very suddenly, leads us to believe that there might be a fall dis- 

 persal flight but so far all our efforts to demonstrate such a flight have 

 been without success. 



I would like to ask Mr. Hayes if he has observed any such flight, 

 for although our evidence is purely circumstantial it seems to point 

 in that general direction and I thought that perhaps someone else had 

 been more successful in making these observations than I have. 



