56 PAPERS ON CEEEAL AND FORAGE INSECTS. 



August 3 ; of the same year, Mr. James K. Metcalfe, Silver City, 

 N. Mex., reported beetles as well as larvae in stalks of corn growing 

 near the Gila River in that vicinity. It was reported that the beetles 

 deposited their eggs in the stalks near the ground; that the grubs ate 

 all the lower part of the stalk and soon destroyed the plant. The 

 beetles destroyed entire fields of corn, working in the usual manner. 



August 6, 1900, Mr. G. L. Swindell, Swindell, Hyde County, N. C, 

 reported that this beetle and its larva were injurious to rice — the 

 larva by feeding on the roots and the beetles by attacking the stalks 

 near the ground. The damage done by the beetle to corn in Hyde, 

 Pamlico, Beaufort, and Tyrrell counties could hardly be estimated. 

 In some years it amounted to almost total destruction and was notice- 

 ably worse near old rice patches. August 20 this bureau received 

 crowns and roots of the infested rice, as well as larvae and beetles. 

 In nearly every case there was a cavity in the crown just above the 

 roots, containing the larva and its castings. 



During 1901 this species was reported by Mr. Franklin Sherman, jr., 

 Raleigh, N. C, as the cause of general complaint in the eastern part 

 of North Carolina of "biHbugs," "klewbugs," " curlew bugs," etc. 

 The species was identified from Elizabeth City and Goldsboro, N. C. 

 Injury was not noticed in the western part of the State. April 23 a 

 report was received from Mr. Robert T. Smith, Grant, Ma., of this 

 species attacking corn, being most troublesome in early March, and 

 infesting the young stalks just below the center, in such a manner 

 that the central leaf often comes out entirely. 



Prof. Franklin Sherman, jr., 1 has given an account of this species 

 with accompanying reports of its injuries to corn in 1902 and 1904 in 

 low, swampy lands in the eastern sections of North Carolina. Injury 

 was also reported by Mr. Sherman in portions of Bladen, Cumberland, 

 Duplin, Moore, and Brunswick counties. 



During June and July, 1904, Mr. Thomas J. Clark, Cliff, Grant 

 County, N. Mex., reported billbug damage, and July 27 sent larvae 

 and imago of this species with the statement that the beetles began 

 operations on young corn as soon as it came up; that they deposited 

 their eggs in the roots; that the larvae continued feeding in the stalk, 

 and that after the corn began to tassel it would fall over and blight. 

 The stalks, however, seldom developed to that extent before they 

 were killed. He stated that cutworms were nothing to compare with 

 them in their attacks on corn; also that the species was believed to 

 be native to old Mexico and that it had been seen in that vicinity 

 seven or eight years earlier. 



June 26, 1906, information was received from Mr. F. B. Hopkins, 

 in charge of the testing gardens at the Arlington Farms, Va., of injury 



i "Insect Enemies of Corn," Bui. N. C Dept. Agr., 1905, pp. 19-22. 



