66 PAPEKS ON CEEEAL AND EOEAGE INSECTS. 



or suckers has sometimes been vulgarly termed "frenching," although 

 it must not be understood that all of the difficulties known as "french- 

 ing" in corn have been due to the attack of these beetles. 



If the puncture made by the beetle for the purpose of securing 

 food has been made higher up the stem, food has been obtained from 

 the unfolded leaves above the crown of the plant. When these leaves 

 finally push forth, the puncture made by the beak of the beetle 

 appears in the shape of transverse rows across the leaves, as illus- 

 trated in figure 21, at a. Frequently there will be a distorted growth 

 on the stem, having much the appearance of galls or excrescences, 

 as shown also in this figure. 



While the damage done by the beetles in feeding is in many cases 

 doubtless severe — if the corn plants are very young at the time of 

 attack they are probably destroyed in this way — generally speaking 

 the greatest damage is probably caused by the larvse, especially in 

 the East. 



Attention has already been called to the fact that the larvae can 

 apparently live without difficulty for a considerable length of time 

 in the stems of plants that are completely covered by water. This 

 is surprisingly true in the case of the adult insect. 



August 4, 1906, Dr. Chittenden collected adults of this species at 

 Arlington, Va., and placed them in a jar of water with a few stalks 

 of grass and chufa. The beetles attached themselves to these stalks 

 under water and remained there. Two of the beetles were removed 

 November 21 of the same year, and although they had been sub- 

 merged during the entire period they were still "very much alive." 

 Another instance has come to our notice which would indicate that 

 not only can these beetles survive in fresh water, but also in salt 

 water. 



Mr. James Overton, a farmer and fisherman residing on the north 

 shore of Albemarle Sound, informed the author that this species was 

 frequently found by him clinging to his fish nets set in the water of 

 the Sound, and that he found them abundantly under the debris 

 along the shore. As Mr. Overton is perfectly familiar with the work 

 of the insect in the cornfields, and was one of the first in his neighbor- 

 hood to recognize it, there does not appear to be any reasonable 

 doubt of the correctness of his statement. Indeed, farmers living on 

 Harveys Neck are of the opinion that the pest first came to them from 

 the South, having drifted across the Sound from the opposite shore. 

 Mr. Overton, who resided on the southern shores of the Sound before 

 taking up his residence on Harveys Neck, states that the insect was 

 destructively abundant along the southern shore before it was 

 observed in his present neighborhood. Whether this theory of the 

 diffusion of the pest is correct or not, there does not appear to be any 

 good reason why the insect might not drift about in the waters of the 



