105 



this food-phmt, as corn planted sutticieutly late to enable root-breediujj 

 is rare. The adult beetle was tbnnd at all times from July 10, 1889, to 

 Deeendjer, 181U), while dnrinji' the winter it was found ainon<i," rubbish in 

 strawberry beds, and in gardens and meadows. During the fall and 

 winter those taken and dissected (;ontained no developed eggs, but in 

 the latter part of Afay, 18<>(), when the eorn was a few in<'hes high, the 

 females colleeted eontained eggs in an advaneed stage of development. 

 No eggs were found after oviposition, but the author concludes that they 

 are jilaced like those of 1). htuf/iconii.s in the ground ,\t the roots of the 

 corn. 



In the course of his treatment of previous Avritiugs, Professor Garman 

 justly calls in question a statement made in Insect Life, vol. i, p. 59, 

 where, by a tyi)ographi('al oversight, this insect is said to have " bred" 

 upon instead of " fed " upon melons. The error is self-evident from the 

 language and from the tenor of the article, which does not treat of larval 

 habits but of the food-habits of the beetle. We would bring together 

 here our record of observation, comnmnicated to Mr. Garman, and an 

 abstract of wliich he has pubhshed in Psyche for Ma^' last. 



Oirr knowledge of the corn-feeding habit of the larvic of this insect 

 dates from April 30, 1883, when Judge Lawrence Johnson forwarded 

 from Allenton, Wilcox County, Ala., a number of larvie, of which he 

 wrote as follows : 



I sent yon last week from Alleutou specimens of the same destructive " bud worm" 

 that I ouce mentioned as heard of but not seen. This is about the right time, for 

 they are now going into the pupa stage, and in the sand you will tind one of the 

 pupae. The worm leaves the corn after doing its mischief, and the puj)a referred to 

 was found immediately under the stalk among the roots. I have never met with 

 this worm except on the prairie regions of southern Alabama, but have heard of it 

 in Mississippi. 



The larvae sent by Judge Johnson transformed to pupse May 8, and 

 the beetles were obtained May 21, 1883. The injury done is to young 

 corn immediately or soon after germination, the larvie burrowing into 

 and eating the stalk just above the root. The common name of "bud 

 worm," l)y which the larva is known in the South, is derived ft^om 

 this habit. 



October 3, 1881, Judge Johnson again forwarded alcoholic specimens 

 of the larvje and beetles, obtained from Maj. M. F. Berry, of Pachuta, 

 Miss. Judge Johnson wrote that — 



From March to the middle of May they so abounded in the southern belt of the 

 Mississippi prairie as to destroy the eorn crop. We have no corn except a little of 

 the early planting (before the middle of March), and the late corn planted after the 

 15th of May. This last was a second or third planting of the same fields and might 

 have done well but for the unusual drouth of the period, this year unusually per- 

 sistent. If you can suggest a certain remedy you will immortalize yourself in 

 southern Mississippi. 



On June 18, 1886, Mr. Lukens, of Mount Vernon, Va., complained 

 that his young corn was being ruined by some small worms, a field of 



