128 INSh:CTS INJURIOUS TO STAPLE CROPS. 



ton has found the beetles on thistles as far east as New 

 Brunswick. The only previous records of it in New York 

 are those of Prof. Webster, who quotes Mr. Fred. Blanchard 

 of Lowell, Mass., as having specimens from New York, 

 and Mr. Ottomar Reinecke of Buffalo, who wrote that he 

 had collected it there on willow j^rior to 1880. Though 

 these statements are doubtless correct, there certainly is 

 no record of it during the last fifteen years, and never of 

 its having been injurious. 



Life-liistory. — The life-history of the pest, though not 

 comjDletely known, is 3'et comparatively simple. The eggs 

 are laid in the early fall, within a few inches of the base 

 of the stalk, from one to five inches deep in the soil. The 

 larvae hatch from June to August, and at first eat the 

 small roots entire, and then commence burrowing under 

 the outer layers of the larger roots, causing the stalks 

 to be easily blown over if on a rich loam, or small ears 

 and a general dwarfing of the plant, if on poorer land. 

 The adult worm is nearly white, with brown head, a little 

 less than half an inch long by less than one-tenth of an 

 inch in diameter. Three pairs of short legs are found on 

 the segments immediately back of the head, but otherwise 

 the long, cylindrical body appears perfectly smooth to the 

 unaided eye, though seen to have numerous hairs and 

 bristles under the microscope. Before pupation the color 

 becomes slightly darker and the body shortens, becoming 

 more like a common grub. They then leave the roots, 

 form a small oval cell in the soil, transform to pup^e, and 

 in a short time come forth as adult beetles 



The beetles are of a greenish or greenish-yellow color 

 and about one-fourth of an inch long, resembling in form 



