2 BULLETIN" 221, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



numbers of beetles near Wellington, Kans., in 1910, and again in 

 1913, together with an outbreak in northern Texas in the spring of 

 1910, and in eastern Arkansas in 1913 and 1914, afforded material 

 and opportunity for further extensive investigations. 



Numbers of the larvae have from time to time been found in the 

 soil, always in close proximity to corn roots which were more or 

 less eaten, but in no instance have they actually been observed feed- 

 ing on corn roots, although especial attention has been given their 

 feeding habits. 



HISTORY. 



In the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 188 7-, Prof. 

 F. M. Webster (Webster, 1887), then a special agent of the Division 

 of Entomology, stated that beetles were observed in Louisiana 

 during April in considerable numbers in fields of young corn. They 

 were found in soil about the stems and attacking the young corn 

 plants by gnawing the outside of the stems, without doing serious 

 injury. His report on a later outbreak at Cheshire, Ohio, in 1900, 

 was the first record of their having done serious damage (Webster, 

 1900). Since that time, however, they have been reported as having 

 done serious injury at several points in Kansas, notably in the 

 vicinity of Douglas, in 1905, as reported by E. S. Tucker (Tucker, 

 1905). The writer observed that they did considerable damage to 

 young corn at Wellington, Kans., in 1910 and 1913, and severe dam- 

 age in the neighborhood of Paris, Ark., in 1913, where several hundred 

 acres of young corn were destroyed in early May, necessitating re- 

 planting — the second planting also suffering severely. Again, in 1914, 

 serious damage was done in western Arkansas, but none was recorded 

 in Kansas. 



Mr. T. D. Urbahns reported slight injury to young corn in the 

 vicinity of Piano, Tex., in April, 1909. The adults were cutting the 

 edges of young corn leaves, leaving them quite ragged. The infested 

 field was one which had been planted to cotton the previous year 

 and was of the same type of soil as a heavy timbered stretch of black 

 land adjacent. 



Mr. Vernon King reported that the beetles had ruined several acres 

 ©f young corn on farms near Charleston, Mo., in May, 1913, stating 

 that the beetles were more numerous on black soil; in fact, none at 

 all was found on light sandy soil. From one to four adults were ob- 

 served on each plant and the plants were literally reduced to frag- 

 ments. (See PL I, figs. 1 and 2.) The infested fields were those of 

 recent clearing in bottom lands. 



During April and early May, 1915, a second serious invasion of 

 this species took place in this same locality. Mr. King having re- 

 signed, the second investigation was carried out by Mr. E. H. Gibson, 

 who used the poisoned-bran bait with good success in destroying 



