THE ROUGH-HEADED CORN STALK-BEETLE 93 
of the egg-laying generation of the year have perished by the first 
of August. 
At Tappahannock, eggs, or recently hatched larvee, were found in 
hills of corn and in a layer of vegetable mold. In this vegetable 
mold they were often deposited at the base of tussocks of the common 
rush, beneath clumps of pasture grasses, especially those of the genus 
Paspalum, and under low mats of Japan clover. ‘The eggs hatch 
within two or three weeks under normal summer conditions. 
ACTIVITY IN THE SPRING 
The beetles are unquestionably much more active and attract far 
more attention in the spring than during the fall. This is due doubt- 
less to the activities connected with feeding and reproduction. The 
beetles are rather sluggish, and if their needs are adequately met they 
apparently do not roam much. When, from any cause, their needs 
are not satisfied, they may come out of the ground and go elsewhere 
in search of more favorable locations, either by flight or by crawling 
away on the surface. Apparently the beetles fly only at night, when 
they are frequently attracted to lights, but the junior writer has 
repeatedly observed them crawling on the surface in bright daylight. 
From observations made on caged individuals, it would appear 
that the impulse to wander may come from lack of food as well as 
from the instinct to mate. Thus, in cages in which beetles were con- 
fined without food, they often came out on the surface, especially at 
night, and crawled up the sides of the cages, frequently attempting 
to take flight; whereas in adjoining cages, in which the inmates were 
plentifully supplied with food, it was a rare event for one to be 
found on the surface at any time. A beetle has occasionally been 
observed to emerge from a hill of corn in which all the plants had 
been killed and move off to another where the plants were intact. 
FOOD PLANTS AND CHARACTER OF INJURY BY THE BEETLE 
Euetheola rugiceps is best known as an enemy of corn and sugar 
cane, but there is reason to believe that these are not its normal food 
plants. During the fall of 1915 the junior writer found them feed- 
ing abundantly upon certain species of grasses belonging to the genus 
Paspalum. ‘These grasses have since been found in every section 
visited by him in which the species has been found or from which it 
has been reported, and there is accordingly every reason to believe 
that they constitute the favorite food of the beetles. Beetles kept in 
confinement ate the plants eagerly. At Tappahannock the species of 
Paspalum fed upon were determined as P. laeve and P. plenipilum. 
The large, coarse-stemmed forms, such as P. floridanum, do not ap- 
pear to be acceptable to them. The beetles attack these grasses in 
much the same manner as they do corn, forcing their way beneath 
the tufts, or coming up under them from below, and boring into the 
culms where the latter lie in contact with the ground. Sometimes 
the culms are cut completely off, but even when they are not entirely 
severed such a thin and broken bit of tissue is left connecting the 
parts that the portion beyond the injury quickly wilts and dies. In 
the fall of 1915 it was a common occurrence to find large patches of 
poveetum which had been almost or quite completely destroyed by 
them. 
