SCULPTURED CORN-CURCULIO : ITS DEPREDATIONS. 257 



attention of Dr. Fitch, and that two communications, at least, were 

 made by him upon it, yet not the slightest reference is made to it in 

 any of his Annual Reports. 



It is also worthy of note, that the injuries to corn, as above given, 

 differ materially from those published later, and hereafter to be men- 

 tioned : in the former, the beetles are said to have eaten large portions 

 of the young leaves or to have gnawed holes into them ; in the latter, 

 simply to have pierced or punctured the stalks. 



Later Depredations. 



It will be observed that nearly all the injuries from this beetle, and 

 especially those that have been the most severe, are recorded from the 

 State of New York, and from contiguous territory in its central por- 

 tion, viz., in the counties of Ontario, Tioga, Chenango, Madison and 

 Onondaga. 



Subsequent to 1861, it seems not to have been observed during the 

 ensuing five years. In 1867, some examples were received by Mr. 

 Walsh, from Onondaga county, N. Y., where it was "making sad 

 havoc with a corn-field, destroying whole fields in some instances." 

 Lfiter in the same year, Mr. Walsh received other specimens from 

 Tioga county, N. Y., with the statement that they were depredating 

 on young corn, and that the sap flowing from the wounds m.ide by 

 them attracted myriads of ants, whence some had erroneously sup- 

 posed that they were the authors of the mischief. The beetles were 

 noticed upon young corn for the first time, in 1866, when they were 

 even more injurious than in 1867, in which year some fields of corn 

 near the Susquehanna river were nearly ruined by them. They were 

 also quite abundant and destructive at Geneva, Ontario county, N. Y. 

 during the above years, having increased to such an extent the second 

 year that from six to twelve of the beetles could tie taken from each 

 hill {Rural New Yorker, June 2!J, 1867). At Concord, Pa., they were 

 reported as destroying young shoots of corn by puncturing them with 

 their proboscis. They were found near the top of the ground. Most 

 of the corn attacked, died, and that which survived, as the leaves un- 

 folded, showed the punctures, which looked like shot-holes {Practical 

 Entomologist, ii, 1867, p. 117). 



Dr. Packard {Injiirious Insects, etc., for 1870, p. 21), quotes from a 

 correspondent in Tioga county, N. Y., under date of June 14, 1869, 

 the following : — 



This is the fourth year that they have infested the newly planted corn in this 

 vicinity. The enclosed specimens were taken on the 11th instant. I presume 

 that they have been in every hill in my field. They pierce the young corn in nu- 

 merous places, so that each blade has from one to six or eight holes of the size of 

 33 



