11 



like it to prowl around and in ears of corn that some bird or beast 

 had meddled with, but to strip the husks off and gnaw the cobs, would 

 be quite beyond the power of any flower-eating beetle known to me, 

 their mouth not being fitted for hard or difficult work." 



The above-mentioned writer also states that he had looked over a large 

 portion of our economic, entomological literature consisting of the New 

 York reports of Dr. Fitch and the Missouri reports of Riley, the reports 

 of the Canadian Entomological Society, and the volumes of the Ameri- 

 can Entomologist, without finding any reference to this species as particu- 

 larly destructive to anything but sweet, juicy fruits. Upon further 

 search, 1 find that he had overlooked a statement made by Dr. Le Baron, 

 formerly State Entomologist of Illinois, in his Fourth Annual Report t 

 (1874), where, in a very brief reference to E. Inda, he says of it : " It is' 

 sometimes troublesome by burrowing into ripe fruit, and also by feeding 

 upon sweet corn in the milk," 



The idea advanced by Mr. Bassett, above quoted, that this insect is 

 not alone chargeable with the injury to the corn, finds support in a com- 

 munication to the Country Gentleman of January 16, 1879, from a cor- 

 respondent at Flushing, N. Y., which at the same time adds another 

 count to the formidable bill of indictment against that unmitigated nui- 

 sance the English sparrow. The correspondent writes : " I had fifty 

 or sixty hills of corn planted in my garden, which came up and thrived 

 wonderfully, and we found it deliciously sweet; so did the English spar- 

 rows. For a considerable time we found, after it was fully ripe, many 

 ears were eaten for five or six inches from the top, and upon examining 

 the places closely, I found one or two bugs in each one about the size of 

 the Colorado bug, with a mottled back, something like in color to a tor- 

 toise shell, with considerable hair on the under-side and legs, which I 

 picked off and destroyed. This I followed up for three or four days, but 

 one morning, going to the corn earlier than usual, I saw on one ear seven 

 of the sparrows making a new opening where there was none before. 

 Of course, here was the solution. After I had put a coat, pantaloons 

 and hat on some sticks nailed together and stood it up in the middle of 

 the corn, I had no more trouble with them. I had supposed that the 

 bugs did the mischief, but they had only entered whero the birds had 

 made an opening." 



It is quite probable that the past year was one in which the species 

 occurred in unusual abundance, and its ordinary food not being met 

 with in sufficient quantity to supply the wants of such a host, it was led 

 to resort to the juices of the tender corn, as an exceptional article of 

 food. Its large numbers, the past season, give no assurance, fortunately, 

 of an increased or even an equal number the present year, for it is well 

 known to entomologists, that a year noted for the invasion of some par- 

 ticular species of insect, may be followed by one when the same insect 

 may be rarely met with. 



Dr. Harris' statement that this insect has its second brood about the 

 middle of September, in Massachusetts, may need some modification. 

 Examples of this brood were found as early as the middle of August, 

 near Bridgeport, Conn. Mr. Bassett records its having been seen by 

 him feeding on the sap which flows from certain woody galls on oak 

 trees. The intense bitterness or acidity of most galls would seem to be 

 very unlike the sweets for which it manifests so great partiality. 



Another species of this genus, the Ktu-jnnnia 'iiu'i'iiicl/olica Gory, of 

 which a figure is given in the American Entomologist^ vol. ii, p. 01, fig. 



