100 
versed; and in 1893 to corn. On this the third year from sod, more 
than half the corn fell flat on the ground by the middle of September, 
most of the roots being eaten off by white grubs, of which three or four 
were commonly to be found in a hill. Owing to the consequent weak- 
ening of the plant the brace roots failed to form, the ears which set were 
small and very often imperfect, and a large percentage of the stalks 
were barren, the total height of the plant varying from six or eight feet 
to less than a ay Even the tallest stalks were slender and unhealthy 
in appearance, the lower leaves, and sometimes practically the entire 
foliage of the plant, being as dry and brittle as in midwinter. ‘Those 
stalks which had been killed early were usually so decayed as to be 
readily pulled apart at the nodes. 
From these data we must conclude that the species concerned— 
which was either inversa or fusca—may live as a larva through four full 
years, making the entire life history cover a five-year period, or else 
that the eggs were laid later than 1889 in either corn or oats. 
The white grubs taken by us in corn fields under circumstances to 
satisfy us that they either were or had been feeding on the roots of 
corn belong to eight species, as follows: Lachnosterna fusca, tristis, in- 
versa, hirticula, rugosa, gibbosa, and ilicis, and Cyclocephala immacu- 
lata. Of these L. fusca, inversa, and rugosa are much more common 
in such situations; and to them by far the greater part of the damage 
done to corn by the white grubs in central] Illinois must be attributed. 
Next to Indian corn, the crop most generally and seriously in- 
jured in Illinois by grubs is grass; and here the loss is the more serious 
because continuous ‘and usually unnoticed. A very large number of 
these insects may live their long lives in the sod, feeding steadily at. the 
roots, and thus diminishing the yield without ‘actually, deadening any 
continuous area. It is only when through uninterrupted multiplication 
they become excessively abundant, or when severe drouth checks the 
growth of vegetation, that brown patches may appear in midsummer, 
sometimes merging in areas of an acre or more over which the turf, 
loosened by a destruction of its roots, may be rolled up like a carpet. 
That they were original inhabitants of the wild prairie sod is shown 
by the common testimony of old setuels and by Walsh in the “Prac- 
tical Entomologist” (Vol. I., p. 60), where he reports that in 1845 
he found white ‘erubs eating off young corn when it was a foot in height, 
in a field broken from prairie land the preceding year. 
Patches of wheat, barley, and other small grains may be similarly 
killed, all underground parts of the plant being completely eaten up; 
but clover is scarcely ever damaged to any considerable degree, and 
grubs are relatively rare in clover ‘sod mixed with grass. Their injuries 
to potatoes have often been reported, and are generally well known, and 
they are among the worst insect enemies of the strawberry grower. In 
regions where the sugar beet is an important crop, they are among 
the chief injurious insects to be taken into account. Young larches 
and evergreens are sometimes killed by them in the nursery rows, and 
probably every kind of delicately rooted shrub and of young fruit and 
forest tree is Hable to destruction by them. 
