INSECTS, 139 
history of this pest,* from which the following 
information is secured, says: ‘There is the best 
of evidence that this pest has for several years 
been working serious injury to the corn crop 
planted on recently-drained swamp lands in 
Indiana, hundreds of acres being thus de- 
stroyed.” 
The larva is white with brown head, the lat- 
ter small, body becoming very robust posteri- 
orly, so much so that it appears to be fully 
two-thirds as broad as long, and very much 
wrinkled. The feet are lacking. The adult is 
black beneath, but varying in color above from 
pale ochreous to plumbeous and cinereous. 
Length one-half to nearly three-fourths inch. 
The insect passes the winter in the adult form, 
and in spring feeds on the tender parts of stems 
of reeds and rushes, and later on on the same 
parts of the young corn. In late May or June 
the female burrows into the earth and deposits 
her eggs in or about the bulbous roots of a 
species of reed. The larve burrow in these 
bulbs, which are often the size of a hen’s egg 
and very hard, and transform to the adult in- 
sect therein, appearing on the rushes, reeds or 
corn in August or September. This species 
will probably never breed in the roots of corn. 
To get rid of this species the best method 
will be to drain the land thoroughly and get 
* Insect Life, Vol. II, p. 132. 
