13 



bana in the club-rush, and Aug-ust 1 several more of various sizes, 

 from those recently hatched to one four tenths of an inch in leng-th. 

 One eg-g- was also found on this same day. Two of the larvae were 

 in one stem. Aug'ust 14, three more larvae were brought in, prac- 

 tically full grown. One had burrowed completely throug-h a small 

 bulb of the club-rush, the channel through the bulb being- contin- 

 uous with that in the stalk. August 20, three other full-g-rown 

 larvic were obtained from the same swampy field, and all had bur- 

 rowed downward from the place of deposit of the egg- to the bulb, 

 a distance of about three inches, and had passed out of this into a 

 bulb of last year's growth, in which they were imbedded at the 

 time. The plant first attacked was killed in every case. Septem- 

 ber 10 one of these bulbs was opened and a pupa found within, and 

 on the 16th of September the pupal cavity contained an adult .S'. 

 ochrens. On the 17th of September another beetle of this species 

 was taken from a second of these bulbs. Three specimens were 

 broug-ht in Aug-ust 28 in essentially the same condition as those 

 collected Aug-ust 20 ; that is, in each case, young- larvae hatching- 

 from the eg-g- had burrowed downward through three or four inches 

 of the stem and to the young- bulb at its base, and had passed from 

 this into that of last year's g-rowth, traversing- a quarter of an inch 

 or so of earth to reach the older bulb. 



fn juries in Whiteside, Adams, and Sehiiylcr Counties. — A 

 case similar to the foreg-oing-, also from a district recently 

 drained, was reported to me June 25, 1895, by M. D. John, of the 

 " Sterling- Evening- Gazette, " in Whiteside county. According- to 

 his statement whole fields of corn were almost completely destroyed 

 in the vicinity of Deer Grove, sixteen miles south of Sterling-, by 

 the clay-colored bill-bug- ( Sphenofhoms orhi'eus ) tog-ether with 

 a black species of similar size, in all probability .S'. pertinax. These 

 bill-bugs, he says, seem to be at home in the water as well as on 

 land. Two or three thousand acres of corn along- Green River 

 were reported to have been destroyed at this time, and most of the 

 farmers were replanting- so-called ninety-day corn, hoping- still to 

 secure a crop. 



The next report of serious injury to corn by this species which 

 has reached me came by letter dated May 24, 1901, from H. D. 

 Hill, of Lima, Adams county, 111., who sent a specimen of this bee- 

 tle with the statement that it was destroying- the young- corn on his 

 farm on bottom-lands which were orig-inally overflowed, but which 

 had been reclaimed and cultivated for about twelve years. 



Another letter of June 25, 1902, from Rushville, 111., written 

 by H. E. McLaren, reports these beetles as present in the bottom- 



