UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



4jEj DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1267 (jfcj 



Washington, D. C. T October 14, 1924 



THE ROUGH-HEADED CORN STALK-BEETLE 1 



By W. J. Phillips, Entomologist, and Henry Fox, 2 Entomological Assistant, 

 Cereal and Forage Insect Investigations, Bureau of Entomology 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Introduction 1 



Economic history 2 



Distribution 3 



Life history 4 



General account 4 



Egg 5 



Larra 9 



Prepupa 16 



Pupa 17 



Adult 18 



Species likely to be mistaken for 



Euetheola rugiceps , 26 



Ligyrus gibbosus (De Geer) 26 



Dyscinetustrachypygus (Burm. ) _ 28 



Cyolocephala spp 29 



Page 



Species likely to- be mistaken, for 

 Euetheola rugioeps — Continued. 



Phyllophaga spp 29 



Natural enemies 29 



Control measures 31 



Elimination of waste lands and 



old pastures 31 



Pasturing with hogs 31 



Early planting 32 



Change of rotation 32 



Fertilizers 32 



Hand picking : 32 



Late summer plowing 32 



Summary of control measures 32 



Literature cited 33 



INTRODUCTION 



The ravages of (Ligyrus) Euetheola rugiceps (Lee.) were first 

 brought to the attention of the writers in 1914 (9, p. 3). z Dr. J. M. 

 Gouldin, of Tappahannock, Essex County, Va., in a letter dated 

 June 26, 1914, stated that some f armersi lost nearly their entire corn 

 crop. The late Prof. F. M. Webster, then in charge of Cereal and 

 Forage Insect Investigations, instructed the senior writer to make 

 a personal survey of the situation. This was done early in July, 

 1914, and showed that serious damage (PI I, A) had occurred on 

 several hundred acres of corn in the vicinity of Tappahannock, Va. 

 At that time the beetles had practically ceased their activities, but 

 specimens were sent to Charlottesville, Va., for life-history studies. 

 Since little was known of the habits of this pest or the means of 

 control, the problem of determining these points was assigned to 

 the Charlottesville laboratory, with the senior writer in charge. 



The breeding records obtained from material secured in 1914 were 

 disappointing, and since the locality of the outbreak was rather 



i Euetheola rwgicepx (Lee.) ; order Coleoptera, family Scarabaeidae. 



2 Resigned August SI, i!ti8. 



•Reference is made by number (italic) to " Literature cited," p. 33. 



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