138 INDIAN CORN CULTURE. 
distributed over the country, as done by Prof. 
Snow, and used to inoculate bugs where neces- 
sary. πο work of Snow has been most en- 
couraging.* 
Clean cultivation is most seeeed in any 
case, and Forbes recommends heavy fertiliza- 
tion of lands as an additional safeguard. 
Corn bill bugs (Sphenophorus). There are a 
number of forms of these bugs which are known 
as snout beetles or bill bugs. They are all 
medium-sized, dark-colored insects. With most 
FIG 51.—CORN BILL BuG, Sphenophorus robustus, Horn, ὦ larva; ὃ, pupa; 
c, beetle, back view; d, beetle, side view. (After Riley.) 
species the adult insects sink the beak into the 
stem of the young corn plant and make small 
cavities in it into which the eggs are deposited, 
where they hatch later on. 
One of the most destructive corn-bill bugs is 
Sphenophorus ochereus, Lec. Its depredations 
are mainly confined to recently reclaimed 
swamp iands. Webster, in discussing the life 
* First, second, third and fourth annual reports Director 
University of Kansas experiment station, 1891, 1892, 1893, 
1894, 
7 Sixteenth report State Entomologist of Illinois for 1890, 
