12 PAPEES ON CEEEAL AND FOEAGE INSECTS. 



Dr. Chittenden informs the writer that since 1895 complaints have 

 been made every few years in localities in Kansas, South Carolina, 

 Georgia, and Alabama of injuries to corn by what he believes to be 

 this species of billbug. The species has been quite generally confused 

 with Sphenophorus pertinax Oliv. and S. robustns Horn, by both of 

 which names it has been mentioned in economic literature, more 

 especially by the latter. It is, however, quite distinct from either, 

 in fact, different from any billbug known to inhabit the United 

 States, and has only recently been described as new to science, although 

 Dr. Chittenden states that it is by no means new as an agricultural foe. 



The observations on the maize billbug (Sphenophorus maidis 

 Chttn.) given herein were made by the writer between June and 

 December, 1910. 



HISTORY OF THE SPECIES. 



The history of this species, the writer is informed by Dr. Chitten- 

 den, is, in brief, that it first attracted attention in Alabama as early 

 as in 1854; again in the same State in 1880; in South Carolina in 

 1881; in Kansas in 1895; in 1901 it again did injury in Kansas, and 

 in 1903 in Georgia. The fact that the insect is injurious to corn in 

 both of the active stages, larva and beetle, indicates that it is a 

 more or less permanent pest, whereas several of our equally common 

 corn billbugs will eventually disappear with the reclamation by 

 draining and the cultivation of the soil and the consequent destruc- 

 tion of their breeding places. 



In the opinion of Dr. Chittenden, this is the species described and 

 figured hy Townend Glover in 1855 a as the " billbug " or ' corn borer 

 (Sphenophorus ?), ,? since both description and figure do not apply 

 to any other billbug known to breed in corn. Glover describes the 

 beetle as from four-tenths to six-tenths of an inch in length, and of 

 a reddish-brown or reddish-black color, and the rostrum or snout 

 in the figure can not belong to an} 7 other Sphenophorus. None of 

 the specimens which served as models of the drawing remains in the 

 Government collections. The billbug was reported as very destruc- 

 tive to corn in many parts of the South and Southwest, more par- 

 ticulariy along the Pedee Eiver. Injuries were reported by Senator 

 Evans, Gen. Fitzpatrick, and Col. Pitchlynn. Senator Evans's 

 report is as follows: 



The perfect insect eats into the stalk of the corn, either below or just at 

 the surface of the ground, where it deposits its egg. After changing into a 

 grub, the insect remains in the stalk, devouring the substance, until it trans- 

 forms into the pupa state, which occurs in the same cavity in the stalk occu- 

 pied by the grub. It- makes its appearance the following spring in the perfect 

 state, again to deposit its eggs at the foot of the young corn plants. These 



Agricultural Report of the Patent Office for 1S54 (1855), p. 67. pi. 4. 



