59 
eating out channels up the stalk, frequently up to the seed leaves. 
The beetles were very injurious to apple bloom, and doubtless aided 
much in the general distribution of pear blight that has occurred in 
Georgia this year. 
LABORATORY OBSERVATIONS. 
Egg laying was repeatedly observed in the breeding cages. In ovi- 
positing the stylus-like ovipositor is pushed down into the soil toa 
depth of from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch, where it is held 
until the egg is forced down the extensible oviduct and out at the 
opening at the base of the ovipositor. This requires usually but a few 
seconds, and.after moving a short distance another egg may be depos- 
ited. The writer has observed a beetle thus deposit fifteen eggs in 
quick succession. Occasionally the ground is found too hard for pen- 
etration, when another trial is made. Ordinarily but one egg seems to 
be deposited in one place, but occasionally two to four may be found 
together. In close quarters, as ina vial, or even under a medium-sized 
lamp chimney, twenty to thirty eggs have been found together in a 
mass. An individual gravid beetle confined by itself usually deposits 
the majority, if not all, of its eggs in a few hours, and my observations 
as a whole incline me to believe that a beetle normally will deposit its 
egos in the course of one or two days. 
Many dissections of gravid beetles show that the number of eggs 
may vary from 62 to 87, with an average of about 75. 
Kees secured March 14 hatched April 14; eggs secured March 29 
hatched April 20, and eggs secured April 24 hatched May 16. The 
variation is doubtless due to the difference in temperature. Just- 
hatched larvee are quite agile and make their way readily through the 
soil. Larve placed on the roots of corn plant in one end of a root 
cage, after the destruction of the corn, made their way through the 
soil to a plant in the other end of the cage, 10 inches distant. Larvee 
may also descend some 8 or 10 inches below the soil, searching for 
food, as was witnessed at different times in the root cages. 
The larve hatched from eggs, previously mentioned, on April 14, 
pupated May 12, spending five to seven days in the earthen cell before 
pupating. The adults appeared May 21, the hfe cycle in this case 
extending over a period of about nine weeks. 
In another batch bred through eggs secured April 25, hatched May 
3, the larve pupating May 27, adults appeared June 5, thus extending 
over a period of forty-one days, or about six weeks. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH MEANS OF CONTROL. 
Two areas were chosen of about one-half acre each, on low and 
moist soil, on which to test the effect of different methods of planting 
and the effect of the use of different insecticidal substances. Each 
area was divided into 27 plats, and treatment for the two areas, plat 
