The Clay-colorkd Biix-bug. 

 , {^Sphcnophorus ochrcus Lee.) 



Injury to (vrn in Ford (A)unly, i8S8. — My first knowlcdg-e of 

 the habits and life history of this species beg-an with a letter writ- 

 ten June 21, 1888, by Mr. J. A. Montelius, of Piper City, Ford 

 county, to Professor G. K. Morrow, Dean of the Colleg-e of Agri- 

 culture at the University of Illinois. In this letter, which was ac- 

 companied by four specimens of .V. ochrcus, Mr. Montelius reported 

 that these beetles were destroying- the corn on new ground in his 

 locality by eating into the stalk and boring to the heart of it with 

 the effect to kill the plant. They were present in great numbers, 

 and had destroyed a large part of the crop — some of it several 

 plantings in succession on the same land. 



Visiting these fields on the 23d of June, 1888, I found them in 

 a swamp area which had been recently drained by a large ditch. 

 Some of these fields had been broken up and cropped the preceding- 

 year, but most of them were planted for the first time in 1888. On 

 the farm of Mr. Montelius, six miles north of Piper City, a field of 

 twenty-five acres had been once destroyed, and the second planting 

 was so badly damaged that the crop had been abandoned and the 

 ground was being sown to millet at the time. 



The injury consisted of long slit- like punctures of the stalk, 

 beneath which the interior leaves and the stalk itself — that is to 

 say, all the more succulent and softer parts of the plant- were ir- 

 regularly but often completely eaten out. In the worst cases the 

 plant was killed ; or^ if the injury was less severe, the leaves were 

 finally marked with more or less regular oblong holes extending 

 lengthwise of the blade but forming- rows across it. 



The injury thus done varied in position from a little below 

 the surface of the ground to the middle or upper two thirds of the 

 larger leaves. The beetles were often seen at work on young- 

 stalks, head downward, with the beak inserted its full length. 

 They were always on the lower part of the plant from an inch 

 above the ground to a little below it, and as many as three of 

 them were sometimes seen on a single stalk. They were not easily 

 alarmed, but the plant might even be cutaway, if care were used, 

 without disturbing them. Although they clung closely to the 

 plant, they could readily be picked off by the fingers ; and when 

 thus disturbed they would feign death for a little time. 



The damage in this field was heaviest near the drainage 

 ditch, where nearly every hill was badly eaten. This ground had 

 been broken from swamp sod that spring, and the injury was slight 



