5) 
53 
was again allowed to go back to its primitive state, and remained thus 
until last season, when, after being drained, a portion was broken and the 
remainder brought into cultivation the spring of the present year, with 
the results here given. 
Other fields of swamp jand, in the same neighborhood, have suffered 
in the same manner as this one, but there is at present no information 
of serious damage until within the last three or four years. 
The first published notice of the destructive habits of these insects is 
found in a brief notice which appeared in several agricultural papers 
during July, 1888, to the effect that Professor 
Forbes had found them to be very destructive 
to corn planted on recently drained swamp 
lands in Illinois, the adult feeding upon a spe- 
cies of rush (Scirpus) and a common reed (Phrag- 
mites), and when these were destroyed they 
transferred their attention to the young corn. 
On May 23, adult beetles were 
sent me by Mr. Quincey farl, a far- 
mer residing near Dayton, Ind., a 
small village about 8 miles from 
La Fayette, with the statement 
that they were destroying his corn. 
The beetles were at once con- 
fined with corn plants growing in 
flower pots, the males proceeding 
to bury their snouts into the ten- Fic. 1.—Sphenophorus oehreus: a. larva; b, adult— 
der stems, near the surface of the sie pa wee 
soil; but the females, to my utter astonishment, burrowed down into 
the earth, out of sight, and staid there. 
Stormy weather prevented my visiting the locality until June 2. The 
infested field comprised about 75 acres of recently drained swamp land, 
plowed the present spring, except a small portion which had been de- 
voted to corn the previous year, and the first avd second planting de- 
stroyed by the beetles. On that portion of the field plowed this spring 
the young corn was not yet up, but on that portion which had been cul- 
tivated last year and planted earlier this year than the newer-plowed 
portion, the young plants had been totally destroyed, the lack of their 
natural food having evidently driven the insects to this part of the field, 
as other fields in the vicinity had not suffered the second year after the 
ground was first broken, although the first crop had been destroyed. 
At the time of my visit the beetles were feeding on a species of rush, 
Scirpus atrovirens, Muhl., puncturing the stems just below the surface 
of the ground and eating out the tender, folded leaves. The sexes were 
pairing, but I could get no eggs. A large number of adults of both 
sexes were taken home, as also were specimens of the Scirpus, including 
the roots, which are bulbous and exceedingly hard and compact. These 
plants were placed in flower-pots, and on each was placed a single pair 
