16 



PAPERS OX CEREAL AND FORAGE INSECTS. 



in burrows in this swamp grass and two pupa?, but failed to rear 

 them. Dr. Chittenden determined these pupae as having adult char- 

 acters of S. maiclis. 



DESCRIPTION AND LIFE HISTORY. 



THE EGG. 



(Fig. 5.) 



Eggs were found by the writer in southern Kansas during June 

 in punctures made especially for them (fig. 7, h) in young corn 



plants. These egg punctures, which the 

 female makes with her beak, are scarcely 

 visible on the outer surface of the stalk, being 

 only a slit in the sheath of the plant, through 

 which the beak, and later the ovipositor, are 

 thrust, the sheath closing readily when the 

 egg is deposited and the ovipositor with- 

 drawn. The eggs are about 3 mm. long and 

 1 mm. thick, creamy white in color, elongate, 

 and somewhat kidney-shaped, with obtusely 

 rounded ends, being slightly more rounded at one end than at the 

 other : the surface is smooth, without punctures. 



In the latitude of southern Kansas eggs were laid in the corn plants 

 durino- the month of June, where they hatched in from 7 to 12 days, 

 the young, footless grub thus finding itself sur- 

 rounded with the choicest food. 



THE LARVA. 



Fig. 5. — The maize billbug 

 (Sphenophorus ma id is) : 

 Eggs. Enlarged three 

 times. (Original.) 



(Fig. 



6.) 



The newly hatched larvae are white, with a light- 

 brown head, the head changing to darker brown 

 within a few days. The color remains white in the 

 full-grown larva?, with the head chestnut brown. 

 The length of full-grown living larvae ranges from 

 15 to 20 mm. and the width from 1 to 5 mm. 



The following description of the full-grown larva 

 was made by Mr. E. A. Schwarz under the name of 

 S. robustus, from the few alcoholic specimens collected 

 Howard at Columbia, S. C. : a 



Fig. 6.— 

 billbug 

 Twice 

 size. 



The maize 

 : Larva, 

 natural 

 (Original.) 



bv Dr. 



Length 12 mm. ; color dingy white ; head chestnut brown, with four vittse of 

 paler color, two upon the occiput, converging toward the base, and one along 

 each lateral margin; tropin very dark, clypens paler; body fusiform, strongly 



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

 p. 141. 



