THE MAIZE BILLBUG. 13 



injects destroy the main stem, or shoots, thus causing suckers to spring up, which 

 usually produce no grain, or, if any, of very inferior quality to that of the 

 general yield. Swamp lands or low grounds are the places most generally 

 attacked. 



Senator Evans thus is, according to Chittenden, to be credited 

 with the discovery that the larva develops in the stalk of corn below 

 the ground, and not in decaying wood, as contended by Messrs. 

 Walsh and Eiley in later years. The insect was said to be very 

 destructive in Alabama, from which State the specimens chosen for 

 illustration doubtless came, and on the Eed River in Arkansas. 

 With little doubt it was the same insect operating in Arkansas, as it 

 is now known that this species ranges between South Carolina and 

 Missouri. 



This insect was observed in the spring of 1881 by Dr. L. O. 

 Howard, at that time assistant to Dr. C. V. Riley, Entomologist of 

 the Department of Agriculture. Dr. Howard was at once sent to 

 Columbia, S. C, to investigate the injury being done to corn by 

 "billbugs," and the following account of these investigations is 

 taken from the report of his observations: 



The species found near Columbia, S. C, is S. robustus [now S. maidis]. In 

 the plantations along the bottom lands of the Congaree River much damage is 

 done by the adult beetle every year, and the corn not infrequently has to be 

 replanted several times, as the earlier plantings are destroyed. The beetles 

 are first noticed in the spring after the corn is well up. Stationing themselves 

 at the base of the stalk, and also burrowing under the surface of the earth 

 slightly, they pierce the stalk and kill many plants outright, others living tu 

 grow up stunted and dwarfed. 



With S. sculptilis [zece], in spite of the damage it has done, the earlier stages 

 remain unknown, Walsh surmising that the larva breeds on rotten wood, so 

 situated that it is continually washed by water. With this statement in my 

 mind I was prepared to doubt the statement of Mr. W. P. Spigener, of Columbia, 

 who informed me that the " grub form of the billbug " was to be found in the 

 corn, but a couple of hours in the field convinced me that he was right, my 

 previous idea having been that he had mistaken the larva of Clillo saccharalis 

 for the weevil grub. I searched a field on Mr. Spigener's plantation, which was 

 said to be the worst point in the whole neighborhood for bugs, for some time 

 before finding a trace of the beetle in any stage, but at last, in a deformed 

 stalk, I found in a large burrow, about at the surface of the ground, a full- 

 grown larva. After I had learned to recognize the peculiar appearance of the 

 infested stalks I was enabled to collect the larvae quite rapidly. 



They were present at this date (Aug. 20) in all stages of larval development, 

 but far more abundantly as full-grown larvae. A few were preserved in alcohol 

 and the remainder forwarded alive to the department, but all died on the way. 

 Two pupae were found at the same time; one was preserved in alcohol and the 

 other forwarded to the department. The beetle issued on the way, and from 

 this specimen we have been able to determine the species. From an examination 

 of a large number of injured stalks it seems evident that the egg is laid in the 



a Report of the Entomologist, Department of Agriculture, for 1881 and 1882, 

 pp. 139-140. 



