Seay Oba eee ah og) se ek yet Rs he NE a Ce Litt 2 « 
cs . tal + ‘ - ‘ ¢ - en a = 
Pur eeu chor pes tes vy : Sake vi aye 
REPORE OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 149 
by ants were observed that the roots were found tenanted, thus indicating, as did 
_ the sizeof the young lice, that these winged females had appeared on the roots 
“within the preceding four days. The most careful search failed to reveal the origin 
_of these winged lice, as no ants were observed transporting them about, although - 
the latter were very busily engaged in running up and down over the young corn. 
If. however, a louse were placed on the corn, it was soon found and at once trans- 
ported to a gallery about a hill of corn. The winged femaies were not always on 
the roots of the corn, by any means, but often on the stem, and in one instance a 
female was observed on a root of grass (Setaria glauca) giving birth to her young. 
Even in this case she was in a gallery surrounded by ants, who doubtless removed 
sher progeny to other quarters, 
_ These observations ied me to conclude that the Corn Plant-louse does not live over 
winter in the fields, nor are the eggs deposited about the corn in the fall, but that 
‘they are deposited about the roots of some other plant, most likely one of tho 
grasses. These eggs develop a wingless brood, probably, from which the winged 
females which first appear in the corn-fields originate. These in turn throw off a 
Wingless brood, and these again a winged brood, thus alternating from one to the 
other. Also that ants, of which three species attend these plant-lice, viz, Lasius 
flavus, Formica schaufussii, and F. fusca, are not in the least responsible for their 
distribution over the fields, although the protection which they afford them greatly 
increases their numbers and the amount of injury done in the corn-fields. 
During June, 1886, a number of experiments were made to test the immediate ~ 
effect of fertilizers, including salt, upon the lice, and also to learn if the ants could 
be induced thereby to abandon or remove their favorites to other plants. 
The substances used were two comimercial fertilizers, Bunner bone dust and bone 
guano, barn-yard manure, and common salt. A double experiment was made with . 
each. The first two substances were applied (1) by scattering a table-spoonful on the 
surface of the ground about the plant and sprinkling with water sufficient to at once 
wash it into the soil, and (2) by drawing the earth away from the roots, scattering 
the same amount of fertilizer about the roots, then replacing the earth and sprink- 
ling the surface less thoroughly than with the first. The barn-yard manure was 
_ well-rotted and a quantity sufficient to fill a pint measure was used in the same way. 
The salt was used like the manufactured fertilizers. 
The result, a week after, was that the lice were still about the roots.in every case, 
and except where salt was used, they were found in the midst of the substances ap- 
plied. The salt only drove them from one portion of the roots to another. Sand 
dampened with kerosene was applied in the same way, the surface application hay- 
ing no effect, while that placed about the roots had the same effect as the salt. 
That proper fertilizers applied to the soil are a general preventive was clearly 
proven by the appearance of the crop on a series of eighteen plots, on the University 
farm. These plots were located side by side and numbered 1 to 18. Ail had pro- 
duced corn for the six previous crops, those plots of even numbers not having been 
fertilized during that time. Plots 1, 7, 13 had, three and again two years previous, 
received applications of gas-lime; plots 3, 9, 15 had received applications of super-- 
phosphates during the same years, while plots 5, 11, 17 had received similar treat- 
ment with barn-yard manure. ‘The result, up to July, 1886, was that the corn on 
all plots except those fertilized by barn-yard manure was small and uneven in 
growth, while on plots 5, 11, 17 the plants were fully a third larger, more thrifty, 
and far less uneven in height. In fact, these plots could be distinguished from any 
of the others at a distance from the field. It was unfortunate that the experiments 
being carried on forbade any examinations of the roots, in order to estimate the 
relative number of plani-lice inhabiting each series of piots. 
CORN BILL-BUGS. 
(Sphencphorus sculptilis.) 
On June 9 of present year, J. B. Lutz, of Wea, Tippecanoe County, Ind., in- 
formed us that ants were destroying his corn ; that he had planted one of his fields 
three times, and each time the corn had been destroyed after it came up. Feeling 
certain our friend was laboring under a mistake, we visited his field on the 13th 
instant and found the depredator to be an old offender, but with few exceptions it 
had noi been observed injuring corn in the Western States. Hence it was to usa 
rather unexpected appearance here in Indiana. 
We found quite a number of the beetles engaged in puncturing the plants just 
below the surface of the ground. The result of this puncture was not, in all cases, 
the destroying of the plant, although practically the outcome, so far as the crop was 
concerned, was the same, for instead of a single stalk many laterals or suckers were 
