INSECTS INJURIOUS TO CORN. 127 



as the larvae had acquired a decided taste for corn, spread 

 gradually eastward into Illinois, where that is the staple 

 crop. 



In the spring of 1882 Professors Forbes and Webster 

 began a careful study of the life-history, habits, and 

 injuries of the insect, and to them we owe almost all our 

 knowledge of it. At that time its injuries were found to 

 be general throughout western Illinois, north of Centralia, 

 and also in southeastern Iowa, destroying from five to ovei' 

 fifty per cent of the crop. In 1885 Prof. Webster found 

 it abundant at Lafayette, Indiana, where the owner of one 

 large estate estimated his loss at fifteen per cent of the 

 wiiole crop, or a cash loss of $60,000. 



Unnoticed in Ohio till 1892, in that year it was reported 

 from Hamilton County, in the extreme southwestern 

 corner of tbe State, and was also found in Van Wert 

 County, in tlie nortlnvestern part. Since then it has 

 steadily advanced, each year spreading over one and one- 

 half counties to the eastward, until in 1895 it had been 

 reported from over almost the entire western half of the 

 State. jS^o special notice has been seen of any spread. 

 While thus spreading eastward, it has become generally 

 recognized in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, northern Missouri, 

 Illinois, and Indiana. 



Though never known to have been seriously injurious 

 east of Ohio, the writer found ears of corn in a field near 

 Ithaca, N. Y., which had been planted in that crop for 

 several years, attacked by large numbers of the beetles. 

 On September 15, 1897, the corn w^as fairly alive with the 

 beetles, as many as a dozen being found eating the silk of 

 a single ear, generally well under the husk. Mr. Harring- 



