107 
with the report of their boring into young corn; and on May 31 Mr. 
William H. Ashmead found the larve in numbers in young corn in 
Somerset County, Md., where they occurred in company with one 
of the wire-worms (Drasterius elegans Fabr.). Mr. Ashmead in his re- 
port (INSECT LIFE, III, p. 54) erroneously referred the larva to Diabro- 
tica vittata, and the mistake was not discovered until the article was in 
print. Early in October, 1890, Mr. Webster forwarded a larva, without 
much doubt of this insect, which he had just taken in the act of eating 
into the stem of Wheat in early sown fields. The larva sent was identi- 
fied by comparison with specimens in our possession. This discovery 
adds a very interesting fact to our knowledge of the food-plants of the 
larva of this insect. 
The adult is known to be a very general feeder, and our unpublished 
notes show that it has been found feeding on the blades of Corn, eating 
long slender holes, as observed, and Mr. Pergande has observed them 
feeding on mold and on the leaves of Solanwm carolinense. They have 
also been found in the vicinity of Washington, feeding on the ears of 
green Corn, and Mr. Webster reports that he has found them eating the 
partly matured kernels of wheat. In Bulletin 22 of this Division, p. 52, 
Mr. Webster also reports their feeding on Wheat, Cabbage, Cauliflower, 
and Beans in April, and on volunteer Oats in December. This autumn 
we have found it for the first time a grievous nuisance in our garden, 
as it has destroyed the choicest roses just as they were about to open. 
Its seriously defoliating young apple trees, reported in INSECT 
LIFE, I, p. 58, is recorded on the authority of Mr. William B. Alwood, 
but from the investigation of similar injury the year following by Mr. 
Marlatt (INSECT LIFE, I, p. 365) it appears that Mr. Alwood had over- 
estimated the damage occasioned by this insect—the injury in great 
part being chargeable to Lachnosterna. 
The early stages of Diabrotica 12-punctata are scarcely different from 
those of D. longicornis, which have been so admirably described by 
Professor Forbes in his first report as State entomologist of Illinois. 
The egg (Fig. a) is larger, being 0.03 by 0.02 of an inch as against 0.025 
by 0.015 in the case of longicornis. In color, instead of being dirty 
white, it is dull yellowish. The hexagonal pits are exactly like those 
on the eggs of longicornis but are perhaps smaller, as there are 30 to 35 
in its entire length as against 20 only in the smaller egg of longicornis. 
The minute depressions which occur in the bottom of the pits of the 
latter species are also found in the eggs of 12-punctata . (See fig 5 a.) 
The larva differs from that of longicornis only in being somewhat 
larger. Before changing to the pupa it attains a length of 0.5 inch as 
against 0.4 in the case of longicornis. In some specimens there are two 
minute tubercles near the apex of the anal plate above, but these are 
not constant and are sometimes entirely wanting, as is always the case 
in longicornis. 
Briefly, the larva is linear in shape, the first two segments tapering 
