18 
Just before pupating, the larva becomes very much shortened and 
thickened, assuming more the form of a common grub. The ab- 
dominal segments now become much more distinctly marked, and 
the head takes a verticalgposition. The length in this, which may 
be called the semi-pupa stage, is only about one-fifth of an inch, 
and the greatest breadth .045 ‘of an inch. The body now tapers 
more posteriorly than _before,?the last two segments being con- 
spicuously narrower than the preceding. In other respects the larva 
remains unchanged. 
Eqg.—The egg is of a dirty white 
color and very minute, .025 of an 
inch in length, and .015 of an inch 
wide; narrower at one end than at 
the other, having in fact almost pre- 
cisely the shape of a hen’s egg. 
+ Under the microscope the surface is 
scen to be thickly dotted with min- 
ute hexagonal pits, (about twenty in 
its ous lengthy) and under a higher 
Sa scornig, POWer the bottom of each of these 
Eee aes ernenitadiandlameteras - pits exhibits still more minute de- 
pressions, seven or eight to each reticulation. 
The only objects which I have noticed in the ground about the 
roots of corn, which are likely to be mistaken for the corn root- 
worm, are very young earth-worms, the larve or grubs of small 
enats and other flies, and young wire-worms. A careful examina- 
tion will readily distinguish the first two of these by the fact that 
they are entirely destitute of legs, while, as already remarked, the 
root-worm has three pairs of jointed legs just back of the head. 
In this respect it agrees with the young wire-worms, which are 
(also like the root-worm) destitute of appendages to the other seg- 
ments of the body. ‘heir crust is, however, firmer than that of the 
latter species, the head is longer, flatter and thinner; the body 
also usually somewhat flattened, and the last segment commonly 
either notched or variously toothed. 
LIFE HISTORY. 
Larva.—The time of the first appearance of the larva im the 
sround—the time, that is, when the eggs begin to hateh—is not yet 
exactly known, as the worms have not been seen until the effect of 
their work upon the corn has attracted attention to them. 
A letter from Dr. Boardman (23d of October, 1882) says: ‘The 
earliest date on which I have found the larva is about the 10th of 
June; but I think they would have been found earlier had search 
been instituted. I did not look for them until I began to notice the 
change in the young corn.” Several farmers who had suffered from 
the work of the worms, both in DeKalb and Mason counties, spoke 
of noticing spots in the field where the corn had ceased to grow 
while they were cultivating it; and as the plowing of the crop is 
nearly all done between the 10th of May and the 20th of July, the 
visible work, of the worms probably begins in June. A correspond- 
ent of the Western. Rural, writing from Warren county, says that 
