16 PAPERS ON CEREAL AND FORAGE INSECTS. 
in burrows in this swamp grass and two pup, but failed to rear 
them. Dr. Chittenden determined these pupe as having adult char- 
acters of S. maidis. 
DESCRIPTION AND LIFE HISTORY. 
THE EGG. 
(Fig. 5.) 
ges were found by the writer in southern Kansas during June 
in punctures made especially for them (fig. 7, 2) in young corn 





























Fic. 5.—The maize billbug 
(Sphenophorus maidis) : 
Eggs. Enlarged three 
times. (Original.) 
plants. These egg punctures, which the 
female makes with her beak, are scarcely 
visible on the outer surface of the stalk, being 
only a slit in the sheath of the plant, through 
which the beak, and later the ovipositor, are 
thrust, the sheath closing readily when the 
egg is deposited and the ovipositor with- 
drawn. The eggs are about 3 mm. long and 
1 mm. thick, creamy white in color, elongate, 
and somewhat kidney-shaped, with obtusely 
rounded ends, being slightly more rounded at one end than at the 
other; the surface is smooth, without punctures. 
In the latitude of southern Kansas eggs were laid in the corn plants 
during the month of June, where they hatched in from 7 to 12 days, 
the young, footless grub thus finding itself sur-’ 
rounded with the choicest food. 
THE LARVA. 
(Fig. 6.) 
The newly hatched larvee are white, with a light- 
brown head, the head changing to darker brown 
within a few days. The color remains white in the 
full-grown larvee, with the head chestnut brown. 
The length of full-grown living larve ranges from 
15 to 20 mm. and the width from 4 to 5 mm. 
The following description of the full-grown larva 
was made by Mr. E. A. Schwarz under the name of 

Fic. 6.—The maize 
billbug: Larva. 
Twice natural 
size. (Original.) 
S. robustus, from the few alcoholic specimens collected by Dr. 
Howard at Columbia, S. C.:¢4 
Length 12 mm.; color dingy white; head chestnut brown, with four vitte of 
paler color, two upon the occiput, conyerging toward the base, and one along 
each lateral margin; trophi very dark, clypeus paler; body fusiform, strongly 


*Report of the Entomologist, Department of Agriculture, for 1881 and 1882, 
p. 141. 
