137 
Attention may perhaps be first attracted when the corn is putting 
forth the silk, by the extraordinary number of barren stalks upon which 
no ear is forming, or stalks may be seen which have scarcely life enough 
to tassel. It may also be observed that the corn is unaccountably late, 
looking evidently greener and younger than other fields which had no 
advantage at the start. Or injury may be first suspected during a peri- 
od of drouth, patches here and there, or the entire field, suffering un- 
duly from this cause. The most conspicuous evidence of this injury, 
however, at this stage of growth, is the prostration of the corn after a 
soaking rain with wind, and the evident inability of the plant to right 
itself, If one of the worst affected stalks be pulled up, the observer will 
notice that the roots are few in number, that many of them are with- 
ered and brown, and that others are rotted away to stubs. In these dis- 
colored roots the minute brown burrow of the insect may usually be 
detected, and the corn root worm itself may often be exposed. A minor 
attack frequently has the effect so to ret tard the ripening of the corn 
that it-is not ready for the earliest frosts, and the ear consequently re- 
mains soft and unfit for use; or the loss of roots may have diminished 
the size of the stalk and ear, leaving a small nubbin where a full ear 
might have been expected. 
The injury continues from about the first or the middle of June 
to the last of August. As some of the Jarve mature and cease their 
work in the latter half of June, and others not for two months later, 
plants once infested may be freed of the attack, at least in part, by the 
pupation of the root worms, and others, spared at the beginning of 
the season, may become infested later. It has sometimes been observed 
that large, rank stalks which did not ear out had evidently been injured 
after the corn had begun to tassel; while others, which leaned over at 
the root and then grew erect, had been infested earlier in the season but 
had thrown out new roots after the root worms had matured. 
It is a matter of common observation that injuries by this insect 
are most noticeable during dry years and upon the higher parts of the 
field. We have no evidence, however, that the corn root worms them- 
selves are more numerous at such times or in such situations, and the 
greater injury may be due simply to the diminished ability of the plant 
to withstand attack. JT have, in fact, seen vigorous and flourishing hills 
of corn badly infested during wet seasons with no visible effect upon 
their growth, even the larger, burrowed roots remaining fresh and effi- 
cient, notwithstanding the injury. 
In case no retardation of growth or damage to the crop has been 
observed, less conspicuous mischief may often be indicated by the great 
abundance in the field, late in July and in August, of a small grass- 
green beetle about a fifth of an inch in length, resembling in shape and 
general aspect the common small striped squash beetle to which, in- 
deed, it is closelv allied. These beetles are most likely to be seen clus- 
tered at the tip of the ear and feeding upon the young silk, or lurking at 
the base of the leaf where it joins the stalk, feeding there upon the fallen 
pollen of the plant. They should also be looked for upon the blossoms 
of ragweed, smartweed, and other plants in bloom among the corn. 
This is the adult insect to which the corn root worm, so-called, has 
given origin, and its presence in extraordinary numbers in any field of 
