37 



study of the pest, and from 1890 to 1893 several important contriVju- 

 tions were made to our knowledge of the insect, notably by Prof. H. 

 Garman, Dr. S. A. Forbes, and Dr. C. V. Riley. The economic- 

 bibliography of Diahrotica 12-2)unctata includes some thirty refer- 

 ences, though many of these are brief notes relative to the food 

 haluts of the adults. 



During the present spring the insect has been quite abundant in 

 Georgia, and it has been the object of considerable complaint, not 

 only on account of injury to corn by the larvae, but on account of 

 injury to the foliage of various plants by the adults. 



The first beetle observed by the writer was on March lii, when a 

 gravid female was found in a road extending between two fields of 

 fall-sown oats. March 13, twent\' minutes' sweeping of a rye field 

 gave two dozen beetles, all gravid females. Some of these deposited 

 numerous eggs in the ^ials by the next morning. On March 22 but 

 few beetles were to be found, owing to the cool weather, but on March 

 28 they were exceedingly a])undant, feeding on rye, oats, and alfalfa. 

 Something like seventy-five were captured in a few minutes' sweeping 

 of alfalfa. The females captured were ahnost all heavy with eggs, 

 these showing plainly through the abdomen as apparently fully devel- 

 oped. Subsequent occasional sweepings of alfalfa and rye indicated 

 that the beetles were most abundant about April 10, after which date 

 there was a very pronounced decrease in the number captured, and 

 many of the beetles captured had evidently oviposited. 



Most corn planted <^n the station had made its appearance above the 

 soil by April 11, and careful examination was made almost daih^ to 

 detect the beetles in the act of ovipositing. No beetles, however, 

 were observed in the cornfields until the 19th, w^hen three were cap- 

 tured, one graA'id. the othei- two having evidently oviposited. By 

 the 24th, beetles were uuich more abundant in cornfields, and were no 

 doubt ovipositing, though I could never detect them in the act. An 

 hour's search with a •'buirs-eye'*' lantern on each of two different 

 nights, in fields where beetles had been somewhat numerous during 

 the preceding afternoons, failed to find the beetles ovipositing. They 

 were appai-ently, on the other hand, not active, man}^ of them in more 

 or less secluded situations. Beetles were o})served to be more numer- 

 ous on the higher parts of cornfields than on the bottoms, which is 

 the opposite of what would be expected, since the larva? are undoubt- 

 edly more numerous in wet l)ottom soils than elsewhere. Jt is a 

 prevalent opinion among farmers in Georgia that eggs are deposited 

 during the cool nights of April, and it may be that eggs are deposited 

 mainly at night. Early morning search for beetles has never revealed 

 them active, but in secluded situations, as within the young leaves of 

 a corn plant or under trash on the ground, and the}' have not been 

 observed to be active until warmed up by the morning's sun. While 



