1881.] Entomology. 915 
year, and as Mr. Henry Edwards informed us, proved a positive 
Nuisance in collecting in the neighborhood of New York city. 
Professor Lintner has published a full account of it in the Admzra 
Husbandman for Sept. 14, 1881, in a paper presented to the N. Y. 
State Agricultural Society. He has also obtained the eggs, and 
from them a second brood of larve. We found the egg-shells — 
quite common in the earth from some sward sent September 12th, 
by Mr. Adams, from a field that had been devastated by: the larva, 
and we have since readily obtained fresh eggs from moths cap- 
tured in Washington. The eggs are pale yellow when laid, but 
become orange afterward; they are elongate-oval, very slightly 
broader at base than at top, and ribbed as in those of various but- 
terflies, there being about twenty longitudinal, rather sharp ridges 
and about thirty less marked transverse ones. The average length 
80.7" and diameter 0.3". They are dropped singly among 
the grass and on the ground —C. V. R. 
LarvaL Hasits oF SPHENOPHORI THAT ATTACK Corn.—For 
Many years several species of the genus Sphenophorus have dam- 
aged the corn crop in various parts of the United States, more 
particularly at the south, where they are all known as “bill 
5 iS Glover, in 1855, spoke of their injuries, but did not deter- 
mine the species. Walsh, in 1867 (Pract. Ent., II, 117), described 
@ species damaging corn in New York as S. ze@, but which sub- 
Sequently proved to be S, sculptilis of Uhler. SS. sculptilis also 
Occurs in the South and West, being common in Illinois and Mis- 
Souri. It has also been received at the Department of Agricul- 
ture from Florida and Alabama, S. redustus from South Carolina, 
and S. parvulus from Missouri, all as injuring corn. The larva 
habits of all these species are unknown. Walsh surmised that S. 
Seulptilis would be found to breed in,decaying driftwood washed 
Y water, the adults migrating to neighboring corn-fields, and 
Some subsequent facts that have come to our knowledge lend 
eee to his hypothesis so far as this particular species is con-_ 
red, 
base of the stalk, and also burrowing slightly under the surface 
of the earth, they pierce the stalk and kili many plants outright, 
leaving others to grow up dwarfed and distorted. The whole 
has frequently to be plowed over and replanted. The eggs are 
Probably laid at this time or a little later, at or near the surface of 
the ground. The young larva, hatching, works downwards, and 
May be found at almost any age in the tap-root. 
A few individ- bs 
