fe pa 
leaves and green fruit of squashes, melons, and cucumbers. We have 
seen it eating into pumpkins, sometimes to the depth of half an inch, 
and feeding upon clover blossoms and upon the leaves of tame and 
wild sunflowers (Helianthus). We have found it in May eating away 
the edges of the leaves of young corn in the field, and in July and Au- 
gust making small round holes in corn leaves in our breeding cages. 
In September and October it has occasionally been taken from the tip 
of the ear of corn, feeding on the silk, and once in August we saw it 
gathering up fallen corn pollen. It has also fed upon ragweed leaves 
in our breeding cages in August. By other observers it has been re- 
ported to feed on the petals of various flowers, including roses, dahlias, 
Cosmos, and the cotton plant; upon young volunteer oats (December), 
on certain moulds, on the horse nettle (Solanum canadense), on cab- 
bage, cauliflower, and beans; and on the leaves of plums, cherries, apri- 
cots, and raspberries. Webster has also seen it eating unripe kernels of 
wheat and corn. 
LIFE HISTORY. 
As is very commonly the case with American injurious insects, 
the life history of this beetle is incomplete. Our studies of it are defi- 
cient not only in continuity of experimental work, but even in a num- 
ber and distribution of observations and collections sufficient to give us 
a fair ground of probable inference. We are especially uncertain as to 
the number of broods and the stage or stages of hibernation. In the 
latitudes of Central and Southern Illinois it seems most likely that this 
is a two-brooded insect, but if so, data published from Alabama and 
Mississippi would make it extremely probable that it is three-brooded 
there. Webster’s observations in Indiana would lead us to suppose 
that. it hibernates as an adult, he having found it feeding upon volun- 
teer oats as late as December 14, and abroad in spring as early as April 
17, at which time the sexes appeared in copula. 
Our own voluminous collection records of the adult do not clearly 
bear out the suppositions made above concerning the hibernation and 
the number of annual generations of this species. Without ever having 
made any special search for it, I find that we have actually obtained it 
in eighty-two collections,—mostly of a miscellaneous character,—rang- 
ing from April 20 to November 15. We have thus taken the imago 
once in April, six times in May, eight times in June, sixteen times in 
July, twenty-eight in August, eighteen in September, four in October, 
and once in November—a gradual rise in frequency from April to 
August, and a similar gradual decline thence to the end of the sea- 
son. In our special collections of hibernating insects this species has 
not appeared; and in our large electric-light collections, made from 
May to September in 1886 and 1887, it occurred infrequently, and in 
no case until July. 
As we now understand the subject we may say that in the latitude 
of the southern half of the State the eggs are laid in May and June, 
that the root worms do the greater part of their mischief also in these 
months, pupating from the middle of June to the last of July, and 
yielding the beetle in July and August. The new generation commence 
to pair by the beginning of the month last mentioned, and young larvee 
of the generation following may be found early in September. 
