133 



of reeds and rushes, and later on the same parts of the young corn 

 plants, if the field has been planted to that grain. Late in May and 

 early in June the female burrows down into the earth and deposits her 



eggs in or about the bulbous roots of Scirpus, 

 the roots of this plant consisting of bulbs con- 

 nected by smaller slender roots. The larvae 

 burrow in these bulbs, which are many of 

 them the size of an ordinary hen's egg and 

 very hard, and transform to the adult beetle 

 therein, appearing on the rushes, reeds, or 

 corn in August and September, and feeding 

 after the manner of their ancestors. The 

 large size of the larvae and the diminutive 

 size of the corn at the period of ovipositiou, 

 renders it very unlikely that this species will 

 ever breed in the roots of corn, and, indeed, 

 uo trouble has been experienced after the 

 natural flora of the land has been eradi- 

 cated. 



At the commencement of my investigation, 

 and after learning the habits of the larvae, it 

 looked as though breaking the ground in 

 June or July and throwing roots and larvae 

 up to the scorching rays of a midsummer sun 

 might destroy the pest. But having reared adults from the egg in bulbs 

 kept in dry earth from the middle of June until the 25th of August, it 

 would seem that little can be accomplished in that direction, and the 

 only plan which now promises success, is to destroy all trace of their 

 native food plants long enough before planting to corn to starve the 

 adults, or compel them to seek other uncultivated localities. A field 

 of 75 acres, in the vicinity of La Fayette, which was nearly a total loss 

 this season, is being fall-plowed, and the result will be seen another 

 year. 



The egg I have not been able to identify with certainty, except as 

 dissected from the ovaries of the female, but it is in all probability quite 

 large, elongate, and white. 



The larva is white with brown head, the latter small, the body be- 

 coming very robust posteriorly, so much so that it appears to be fully 

 two-thirds as broad as long, and very much wrinkled. Feet wanting. 

 The adult is black beneath but varying in color above from pale 

 ochreous to plumbeous and cinereous. The size varies from less than 

 one-half to nearly three-fourths of an inch in length. 



In some instances I find that the work of these snout beetles has 

 been confused by unentomological farmers with that of a cut- worm 

 which eats into the young corn a short distance above the roots and 

 then works upwards in the stem, after the manner of Gortyna nitela, 



Fig. 21. —Work of Sphenophorus 

 ochrens in roots of Scirpus— nat. 

 ural size (original). 



