THE INDIAN CETONIA : ITS INJURIES TO CORN. 235 



Surprise at its Appearance as a Corn Depredator. 



That one of our flower-beetles should present itself to our notice as 

 a corn-pest has excited no little surprise among entomologists. Its 

 habit of frequenting sap-trees in the spring to partake of the sap has 

 long been known, and it is charged with the crime of occasionally 

 burrowing into ripe peaches to feed upon the sweet and luscious pulp.* 

 An entomological corresponden t of the New Haven paper from which we 

 have quoted above, Mr. 11. F. Bassett, questions the statements made that 

 this insect is the author of the injuries credited to it, and says : " It 

 would bo just like it to prowl around and in ears of corn that some 

 bird "or beast had meddled with, but to strip the husks off and gnaw 

 the cobs would be quite beyond the power of any flower-eating beetle 

 known to me, their mouth not being fitted for hard or difficult work." 



Earlier Notices of its Injuries to Corn. 

 The above-mentioned writer also states that he had looked over a 

 large portion of our economic entomological literature, consisting of 

 the New York reports of Dr. Fitch and the Missouri reports of Riley, 

 the reports of the Canadian Entomological Society, and the volumes 

 of the American Entomologist, without finding any reference to this 

 species as particularly destructive to any thing but sweet, juicy fruits. 

 Upon further search of our writers, I find that he had overlooked a 

 statement made by Dr. Le Baron, formerly State Entomologist of Illi- 

 nois, in his Fourth Annual Report (1874), where in a brief reference 

 to E. Inda, he has written of it : " It is sometimes troublesome by 

 burrowing into ripe fruit, and also by feeding upon sweet corn in the 

 milk." Dr. Harris states that about the middle of September, it may 

 be found in great numbers on corn-stalks, feeding upon the sweet sap; 

 and Mr. Glover has seen it in the South, feeding on the exuding sap 

 of cotton-bolls. 



Its Attack Probably Follows Previous Injury. 

 The idea advanced by Mr. Bassett, above quoted, that this insect is 

 not alone answerable for the injury to the corn, finds support in a com- 

 munication to the Country Gentleman of January 16, 1879, from a 

 correspondent at Flushing, Xew York, which at the same time adds 

 another count to the formidable bill of indictment against that notori- 

 ous avian pest — the English sparrow ! The correspondent writes: 

 '•'I had fifty or sixty hills of corn planted in my garden, which camo 

 up and thrived wonderfully, and we found it deliciously sweet; so did 

 the English sparrows. For a considerable time we Jound, after it was 



*Dr. Harris states that lie has taken a dozen of them from a single peach, into which they 

 had burrowed so that nothiug but the uuked tip of their hind-body could be seen ; and not 

 a ripe peach remained unbittCn by thctn on the tree. 



