18 



Hamilton has found it common in the salt marshes of New Jersey, 

 and believes that it breeds in grasses daily wet by the tide. 



In Illinois it has been most frequently collected in swampy re- 

 gions or along- the borders of lakes, and in corn fields has been 

 most abundant on lands recently drained, associated there with the 

 clay-colored bill-bug. Our Illinois collections were all made in the 

 central and northern parts of the state, and range from April to 

 August of several years. 



The injury to corn is similar to that of the clay-colored species, 

 but less severe owing to the smaller size of the beetle. The plant 

 injured by ^^r//;/r^v is less frequently killed outright, but is com- 

 monly dwarfed, often becomes badly twisted as it grows, and rarely 

 forms an ear. The beetle attacks the corn plant at the crown be- 

 low the surface, and is usually nearly or quite buried in the earth. 

 At Bridgewater, III., in 1902 it was about as common on corn as 

 the larger species, but was frequently overlooked because partially 

 concealed by its mode of feeding. In swamps it has been found on 

 young rushes just beneath the surface, making holes in the ground 

 like minute gopher holes to get at its food. 



Parrott ('99) reports it as destructive to corn in Nebraska, the 

 injured stalks failing to produce ears. The beetles were still at 

 work on the corn plant July 27, and when not eating were to be 

 found in underground burrows. In this article, published in the 

 "Kansas Farmer" for May 11, 1899, he says that the eggs of per- 

 tinax were deposited June 24 to 26 in burrows about an inch under 

 ground and touching the roots of the corn, and that these eggs 

 were hatching July 18. His experiments satisfied him that it 

 thrives equally well in a blue-grass sod. He assumes that it hiber- 

 nates in the pupa, the evidence on that point being the receipt of 

 specimens early in May, 1898, some of which had the peculiar 

 pinkish color characteristic of beetles just from the pupa.* 



The life history of this species seems thus not to differ materi- 

 ally from those of the others treated in this paper, although our 

 data are too scanty for satisfactor}^ generalization. Parrott's 

 statement with regard to the breeding of the species in corn, based 

 as it seems to be on experimental data, is of special interest, since 

 we have no other observation of a northern species laying its eggs 

 on the corn plant. It will be noticed that in this case the beetles 

 were under confinement, and that no positive inference can be 

 made as to their choice of plants for breeding in the field. 



*Letter oi July 2g, iqo2. 



