THE SOUTHERN CORN LEAF-BEETLE. 3 



the beetles, applying it about the hills of corn where the beetles were 

 at work. 



Observations in both Louisiana and Ohio by Prof. Webster (Web- 

 ster, 1901) and in Kansas, Texas, and Arkansas by the writer seem 

 to indicate that the insect occurs in destructive abundance on lands 

 that have previously been devoted to pasture or lands that have 

 been allowed to lapse into a semiwild condition, not having been cul- 

 tivated for several years. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



The species is widely distributed over the southern half of the 

 United States, extending from the extreme southeastern part of Ari- 

 zona to southern Texas, becoming more numerous directly north of 

 Brownsville, thence northward to southern Iowa, and eastward to 

 northern Illinois and central Ohio and to Washington, D. C, the most 

 southeastern point recorded being in northern Florida. This insect 

 has not been reported from Tennessee, North Carolina, South Caro- 

 lina, or Georgia, but evidently it may occur in these States. (See 

 map, fig. 1.) 



Prof. F. M. Webster (Webster, 1901) remarks in regard to the 

 distribution of other species — 



Myochrous squamosus ranges from northern Arizona and New Mexico to the Platte 

 River in Nebraska and northwest into Montana, probably through western South 

 Dakota and "Wyoming. Myochrous longulus, the only remaining species to be men- 

 tioned, is known to range from southern California and Arizona northward into 

 Colorado, where it has been reported to Dr. Le Conte, without exact locality. It not 

 unlikely occurs also in Utah, although it has not yet been reported from there in the 

 literature, so far as I am able to learn, but in any case overlapping the territory in- 

 habited by Myochrous squamosus in northern Arizona and New Mexico, and also 

 probably in Colorado, while the latter species borders on and possibly mingles with 

 Myochrous denticollis in southwestern Arizona, eastern New Mexico, western Kansas, 

 and extreme southeastern Nebraska. 



DESCRIPTION AND LIFE-HISTORY NOTES. 



The insect was described by Dr. Thomas Say in 1824 (Say, 1824) 

 under the name of Colaspis denticollis, from specimens collected in 

 Missouri. Dr. Say did not mention any food plant in connection 

 with his description. It was first described as an insect pest to 

 growing corn by Prof. F. M. Webster (Webster, 1901). 



THE EGG. 



The egg (fig. 2) is small, oval, pale yellow, and about 0.036 of an 

 inch hi length and 0.015 of an inch in diameter. The surface is 

 smooth and slightly glistening. The female deposits her eggs in 

 clusters of from 10 to 50 in the field, carefully placing them in small 

 pieces of weeds, hollow straws, in crevices, in clods of dirt, but always 

 near corn plants. 



Close searching in the neighborhood of plants other than corn has 

 failed to reveal them, although the beetles have been noted feeding 



