66 PAPERS ON CEREAL AND FORAGE INSECTS. 
or suckers has sometimes been vulgarly termed ‘‘frenching,” although 
it must not be understood that all of the difficulties known as “‘french- 
ing’’ in corn have been due to the attack of these beetles. 
If the puncture made by the beetle for the purpose of securing 
food has been made higher up the stem, food has been obtained from 
the unfolded leaves above the crown of the plant. When these leaves 
finally push forth, the puncture made by the beak of the beetle 
appears in the shape of transverse rows across the leaves, as illus- 
trated in figure 21, at a. Frequently there will be a distorted growth 
on the stem, having much the appearance of galls or excrescences, 
as shown also in this figure. 
While the damage done by the beetles in feeding is in many cases 
doubtless severe—if the corn plants are very young at the time of 
attack they are probably destroyed in this way—generally speaking 
the greatest damage is probably caused by the larve, especially in 
the East. 
Attention has already been called to the fact that the larve can 
apparently live without difficulty for a considerable length of time 
in the stems of plants that are completely covered by water. This 
is surprisingly true in the case of the adult insect. 
August 4, 1906, Dr. Chittenden collected adults of this species at 
Arlington, Va., and placed them in a jar of water with a few stalks 
of grass and chufa. The beetles attached themselves to these stalks 
under water and remained there. Two of the beetles were removed 
November 21 of the same year, and although they had been sub- 
merged during the entire period they were still ‘“‘very much alive.” 
Another instance has come to our notice which would indicate that 
not only can these beetles survive in fresh water, but also in salt 
water. 
Mr. James Overton, a farmer and fisherman residing on the north 
shore of Albemarle Sound, informed the author that this species was 
frequently found by him clinging to his fish nets set in the water of 
the Sound, and that he found them abundantly under the débris 
along the shore. As Mr. Overton is perfectly familiar with the work 
of the insect in the cornfields, and was one of the first in his neighbor- 
hood to recognize it, there does not appear to be any reasonable 
doubt of the correctness of his statement. Indeed, farmers living on 
Harveys Neck are of the opinion that the pest first came to them from 
the South, having drifted across the Sound from the opposite shore. 
Mr. Overton, who resided on the southern shores of the Sound before 
taking up his residence on Harveys Neck, states that the insect was 
destructively abundant along the southern shore before it was 
observed in his present neighborhood. Whether this theory of the 
diffusion of the pest is correct or not, there does not appear to be any 
good reason why the insect might not drift about in the waters of the 
