5 



of this or some closely allied species, in June, in a corn field in 

 Alexander county in numbers sufficient to arrest the growth of 

 the corn in irregular patches, here and there. I feel bound to do 

 my best to excite the serious apprehension of farmers respecting 

 the future of the corn root worm in regions where it is being 

 neglected. I have no doubt that under such circumstances, multi- 

 plying continuously, as it is liable to do. it will in time accumu- 

 late in such numbers as no longer to confine its chief injuries to 

 fields principally in corn, but that the beetles wall be early forced 

 to scatter in search of food, from the fields in which they emerged, 

 and that the eggs will consequently be freely laid everywhere in 

 the ground instead of being confined, as now, chiefly to fields of 

 corn. Indeed, there is already some serious indication of the ap- 

 proach of this calamity. From Mr. E. C. Davis, of French Grove, 

 in Peoria county, I learned that the adult beetle had been seen in 

 his vicinity, flying in sw^arms so early in the season that it is not 

 at all likely that the females had yet deposited the principal part 

 of their eggs. In such cases, the ground will almost certainly be 

 heavily stocked with the eg2:s wherever a sufficient food supply 

 occurs, and fields not lately in corn will be liable to show next 

 year evidences of serious injury by this pest. As the beetle lives 

 largely upon the pollen of plants, and congregates upon clover 

 heads and other late blooming flowers, it is in fields of clover or 

 those containing an unusual amount of fresh young vegetation 

 that this prevalence of the corn root worm is likely to be noticed. 



It is not unlikely that the abundance of grasshoppers in corn 

 fields in some parts of the State, and the consequent diminution 

 of the ordinary food supply of the corn root worm beetle, may 

 have forced it to leave the corn fields earlier than is its custom. 

 But this consideration serves to enforce the importance of a gen- 

 eral rotation of crops as a safeguard against a pest so liable to 

 take advantage of even slightly favoring circumstances and to in- 

 flict uncontrollable damage upon the principal farm crop of the 

 State. 



As a very effective precaution against a possible injury to corn 

 by the root worm, on ground not last in corn, I would suggest 

 the early plowing of such fields. By thus destroying the food of 

 the adult before the season for the laying of the eggs, all tempta- 

 tion to resort to these fields will be removed. To this end, ground 

 in clover, or that covered with any sort of late blooming vegetation, 

 or with a fresh growth of tender herbage, like volunteer oats, 

 should be plowed before the middle of October if intended for 

 corn. 



Old meadows near Edgewood, in Effingham county, w^ere found 

 in July, 1886, noticeably damaged by the larva of S'phenopliorus 

 parvulus. Another insect of the same iami\y {Ithycerus novehora^ 

 censis) was sent me from Bureau county, with a report of its 

 ctiaracteristic injury to the leaf buds of the apple. 



Injuries to the most important crop of the State by its most 

 threatening insect enemy (the corn plant louse. Aphis maidis) 



