THE MAIZE BILLBUG. 103 
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. 
Senator Evans thus is, according to Chittenden, to be credited 
with the discovery that the larva develops in the stalk of corn below 
the ground, and not in decaying wood, as contended by Messrs. 
Walsh and Riley in later years. The insect was said to be very 
destructive in Alabama, from which State the specimens chosen for 
illustration doubtless came, and on the Red River in Arkansas. 
With little doubt it was the same insect operating in Arkansas, as it 
is now known that this species ranges between South Carolina and 
Missouri. 
This insect was observed in the spring of 1881 by Dr. L. O. 
Howard, at that time assistant to Dr. C. V. Riley, Entomologist of 
the Department of Agriculture. Dr. Howard was at once sent to 
Columbia, S. C., to investigate the injury being done to corn by 
“pillbugs,” and the following account of these investigations is 
taken from the report of his observations: 4 
The species found near Columbia, S. C., is S. robustus [now S. maidis]. In 
the plantations along the bottom lands of the Congaree River much damage is 
done by the adult beetle every year, and the corn not infrequently has to be 
replanted several times, as the earlier plantings are destroyed. The beetles 
are first noticed in the spring after the corm is well up. Stationing themselves 
at the base of the stalk, and also burrowing under the surface of the earth 
slightly, they pierce the stalk and kill many plants outright, others living to 
grow up stunted and dwarfed. 
With S. sculptilis [zee], in spite of the damage it has done, the earlier stages 
remain unknown, Walsh surmising that the larva breeds on rotten wood, so 
situated that it is continually washed by water. With this statement in my 
mind I was prepared to doubt the statement of Mr. W. P. Spigener, of Columbia, 
who informed me that the “ grub form of the billbug’’ was to be found in the 
corn, but a couple of hours in the field convinced me that he was right, my 
previous idea having been that he had mistaken the larva of Chilo saccharalis 
for the weevil grub. I searched a field on Mr. Spigener’s plantation, which was 
said to be the worst point in the whole neighborhood for bugs, for some time 
before finding a trace of the beetle in any stage, but at last, in a deformed 
stalk, I found in a large burrow, about at the surface of the ground, a full- 
grown larva. After I had learned to recognize the peculiar appearance of the 
infested stalks I was enabled to collect the larvee quite rapidly. 
They were present at this date (Aug. 20) in all stages of larval development, 
but far more abundantly as full-grown larvie. A few were preserved in alcohol 
and the remainder forwarded alive to the department, but all died on the way. 
Two pup were found at the same time; one was preserved in alcohol and the 
other forwarded to the department. The beetle issued on the way, and from 
this specimen we have been able to determine the species. From an examination 
of a large number of injured stalks it seems evident that the egg is laid in the 

4 Report of the Entomologist, Department of Agriculture, for 1581 and 1882, 
pp. 189-140. 
