248 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



be successfully used ugamst L. farcfa, and we should certainly advise 

 experimentation in tLis direction. Should this liiil, there remains noth- 

 inj^ but haud-pickin^\ 



In pasture lands which have been badly injured by the larvae of ioc/t- 

 nosterna (ordinarily called white fjruhs) there seems to be no remedy 

 other than giving the badly-infested field up to the hogs, which soon 

 root out the larvae. This, of course, would i>ay only in extreme cases ; 

 but by such a course the numbers of the bettles would necessarily be 

 greatly lessened, and the double injury of the two forms prevented. 



DiEOLTA AEEEA, Mcls. (EaMts of larvae). — Early in March of the 

 present year, specimens of larvae infesting turnips were received from 

 ^Ir. J. S. Newman, of the Southern Enterprise, of Atlanta, Ga. The 

 larvae were found burrowing into the leaf stems as well as into the 

 turnip itself, the eggs having evidently been deposited near the base of 

 the loaves. It was thought at first that these might be the larvae of the 

 striped turnip-flea beetle, as they bore a gi'eater or less resemblance to 

 them, but rearing to the perfect state showed them to belong to a 

 closely-allied species, Bibolia aerea. As the larvae of this insect have 

 not to my knowledge been described, I subjoin, a description : 



Full-grown larva. — Length, 8""". Slender, flattened dorso-ventrally, widest in 

 middle, tapering eliglitly in both directions. General color, nearly white; head 

 brown, darker around its margin; thoracic and anal plates a little lighter in color 

 than the head ; the second and third thoracic segments have each a pair of large, 

 transverse, pale grayish spots and one subdorsal spot of the same color, also several 

 small, round, darker spots ; the piliferous spots of abdominal segments 1 to 6 are small, 

 oval, of the same gray color, and with pale centers; the dorsal spots of the seventh 

 and eighth are large and transverse oval in shape. The anal plate is beset with quite 

 long hairs ; all hairs are pale brownish. The whole body above and below is marked 

 with numerous, very small oval, rather indistinct, grayish spots. Thoracic legs dark; 

 only one prop-leg. The head is ordinarily sunken into the thorax for about one-third 

 of its length. The anal plate bears at its end two upward curved (at their tips slightly 

 incurved) minute blackish-brown horns. 



The young larvae are very similarly marked, except that all markings are much 

 clearer and darker. The head is black, the thoracic and anal plates slightly lighter; 

 the anal horns are proportionately larger, and are blacker. The anterior half of the 

 prothorax is white, and the thoracic plate is divided by a white longitudinal line ; the 

 body is yellowish. 



The corn sphenophorus {Sphenophorus seae, Walsh). — This de- 

 structive insect was first described by Walsh in the Practical Entomolo- 

 gist, II, 117. No additions have been made to Walsh's observations, so 

 far as we are aware. 



Specimens were received the past summer from Mr. E. G. Haley, 

 of Audrain County, Missouri. The beetles were first noticed about 

 the first- of May, and destroyed all the com in the field. A second 

 planting was also destroyed as fast as it came up ; and the third plant- 

 ing was also injured, but the beetles began to disappear before it wa.s 

 badly damaged. The young shoots were bored through and through 

 near the ground. This is, we think, the first notice of its injuries so far 

 west, the principal damage heretofore having been done in New York 

 and Pennsylvania. 



Walsh was of the opinion that the beetle would only annoy farmers 

 who lived near large streams in which there would be apt to be au 

 accumulation of drift-wood, inasmuch as he had found the larva in de- 

 caying logs floating in water. Moreover, all the specimens which he 

 had received were from locjilities very near streams. It is of importance, 

 of course, to know if this inference be true, or whether, as we suspect, 

 the larvae Avill also be found in other situations. As bearing ui)on this 

 point, we quote from Mr. Haley's reply to our inquiries: 



