“ec steel 25) 
Roots penetrated, perforated, irregularly burrowed, and more or less 
eaten off and eaten up. Underground parts of stalk usually also 
similarly injured. 
Wireworms in sotl among the roots. 
a discussion of the wireworm injury to corn, see this report, 
Dials ) 
Small, slender . soft-bodied, white or yellowish-white grubs in the 
roots and earth. 
THE SOUTHERN CORN ROOT WORM. ~ 
(Diabrotica 12-punctata, Oliv.) 
(Plate XIV., Fig. 1-5.) 
Injuries to corn by the southern corn root worm have not been 
seen by us in Northern Illinois and but rarely in the central. part of 
the State, but they are more likely to occur southward. Outside this 
State they have been recognized by entomologists in Ohio, Indiana, Ken- 
tucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, Vir- 
ginia, and Maryland. As the beetle occurs from Canada southward 
through the Atlantic region, and thence to Minnesota, Kansas, Louisi- 
ana, and Mexico, it will probably be found much more generally pres- 
ent in corn fields than the above report Ww ould indicate. 
Its injuries are very similar in general character and effect to those 
of the much more abundant and better known northern corn root worm 
(Diabrotica longicornis), with which they have doubtless frequently 
been confounded. They are distinguishable with some difficulty from 
those due to the various species of wireworms, and it will often require 
the recognition of the larva itself to determine positively to which of 
these two classes of insects a given root injury is due. The presence of 
this root worm in the field gives origin to the usual general effects of 
the loss of roots by the plant, varying according to the age of the corn, 
the gravity of the injury, and the kind of soil and we eather. A conspic- 
uous damage, noticeable on a casual inspection, may vary from the death 
of the plant to a slight retardation of its growth or to a general spin- 
dling, yellowish, and unhealthy look. 
In the young plant, about six inches high, the characteristic per- 
forations of the stalk under ground may result in the sudden w ithering 
of the whole plant, or, more commonly, in the killing of the central 
leaf or tuft of growing leaves—an appearance Ww hich has given to this 
insect the common name of the “bud worm” in some of the Southern 
States. In certain instances the plant has been killed, as in Mary- 
land, almost as soon as it has sprouted. 
‘As the season advances, the corn in affected fields is likely to be 
uneven in size, and later, as the plant becomes top-heavy with growth, 
it may fall to the earth when the soil is softened by rains, and espe- 
cially during windy storms. Having once so fallen, it will, if badly in- 
jured, fail to rise again; and it may further be seen that the plant 
has but little hold upon the ground, a whole hill, perhaps, being readily 
pulled up with one hand. As a consequence of the loss of roots and the 
general weakening of the plant, many stalks fail to set the ear, or 
te 
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