198 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETABLES 



bed. In one field not a single plant had escaped attack. Ap- 

 proximately 50 per cent, of the plants had been killed outright, 

 and 25 per cent, of the remainder were so severely damaged as 

 to necessitate replanting. In some fields a second replanting 

 had been necessary. In the latter days of May the bill- 

 bugs were in the height of their work of demolition, and had 

 nearly ceased by the second week of June. 



The Clay-colored Bill-bug (Sphenophorus cequaUs Gyll.)^ — 

 This species (fig. 126) resenbles the preceding in depredating 



Fig. 126. — Clay-colored biM-bug. u. Beetle; i, work iniushbulb; c, larva 

 (Insect Life, U. S. Dept. Agr.) 



on corn only in the adult stage, its larva developing in the bulbs 

 of club rush and related plants. It is the largest of our in- 

 jurious corn-feeding species of this group. 



METHODS OF CONTROL 



Injury to other crops than corn by bill-bugs is comparatively 

 insignificant, and the same holds of the larvae. The beetles 

 are the occasion of the greatest losses when corn is first 

 planted and their amazing vitality makes it difficult to combat 

 them with poisons which are practically inert. 



1 Mentioned in economic literature as Sph. ochreits Lee. 



