SPHENOPHOItUS LMIVM LIVING IN COKN. 261 



terize it. The geiitleinaii (Senator Evans), sending the beetles to the 

 Department at Washington, gave the following statement of them : — 



The perfect iusect eats into the stalk of coru. either below or just at the sur- 

 face of the ground, where it deposits its egg. After changing into a grub, the 

 iusect remains in the stalk, devouring the substance, until it transforms into the 

 pupa state, which occurs in the same cavity in the stalk occupied by the grub. It 

 makes its appearance the following spring in the perfect state, again to deposit its 

 eggs at the foot of the young a)ru plants. These insects destroy the main stem, 

 or shoots, thus causing suckers to spring up, which usually produce no grain, or, 

 if any, of very inferior quality to that of the general yield. Swamp lands or low 

 grounds are the places most generally attacked. 



Mr. Glover further states that General Fitzpatrick, of Alabama, and 

 Colonel Pitchlynn, Chief of the Choctaw nation, both corroborate the 

 above statement of the habits of the species, and represent it as very 

 destructive in Alabama, and on the Ked river, in Arkansas, but that 

 the planters have greatly diminished its numbers by pulling up the roots 

 of the corn after the crop has been housed, piling them up in heaps 

 and burning the whole mass. 



Similar additional testimony of the presence of the curculio larva in 

 the stems of corn, is given by Mr. Glover {ibid., p. 08) : " A black 

 curculio with curiously sculptured thorax, Splienupliorns caryoms 

 (Oliv.), was sent from New Jersey, where it was said to be very de- 

 structive to young plants of maize in the field. It destroys them by 

 piercing the stems, in which the larva lives and feeds." 



A Species Breeding in Corn. 



If the above statements of the larvct? of species of Sphenophorus liv- 

 ing within the stalks of corn, from having been made by other than 

 entomologists were not entitled to full credence, we have, quite re- 

 cently, the unqualified confirmation of the statements, in the testi- 

 mony of a skillful entomologist, Mr. L. 0. Howard, of the Department 

 of Agriculture. One of the larger curculios, Spheniipliorus robustvs 

 Horn, was reported as doing considerable injury to corn in South 

 Carolina, last year.* Mr. Howard having been sent from the Depart- 

 ment to study its habits, found as follows : — 



It actually breeds in coru. Ou the plantations along the bottom-lands of the 

 Congaree and neighboring streams, as soon as the corn appears in the spring it is 

 attacked by numbers of the adult beetles. Stationing themselves at the bas"=! of 

 the stalk, and also burrowing slightly under the surface of the earth, they pierce 

 the stalk and kill many plants outright, leaving others to grow up dwarfed and 

 distorted. The whole field has frequently to be plowed over and replanted. The 

 eggs are probably laid at this time or a little later, at or near the surface of the 

 ground. The young larva, hatching, works downwards, and may be found at al- 



*Spheri02>horus pertiiiaxOWx., aUo injures coru, iu the South (iioni), and ^'. ^jo/uu/tts 

 Gyll., in Missouri (Riley). 



