2 BULLETIN 8, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
They are deposited mostly in late August and in September, in shallow 
crevices in the ground, more often among the brace roots of the corn. 
These eggs hatch the following May and June, and the larvee, always 
nearly white in color, attack the roots of the corn and never burrow 
into the lower stem as does the southern budworm. (See fig. 5.) 
After completing their growth the larve abandon the corn roots and 
construct earthen cells in the soil, within which they change to pup 
(fig. 4), which are white like the larvee, and then, during late July 
and August, to adults or beetles. There is therefore only one genera- 
tion annually. The beetles may perhaps live 
over winter in extreme southern Texas, but 
they do not do so farther. north, where they 
are of the greatest economic importance. 
DISTRIBUTION. 

Fie. 3.—The western corn- . Lhe species cccurs from Nova Scotia south- 
rootworm: Heg. High ward to Alabama and Mexico, westward to 
ly magnified. (Origi- : 
nal.) southern Minnesota and South Dakota, and 
thence south to southern New Mexico. 
— Curious enough, but a matter of decided economic importance, 
is the fact that its area of destructive abundance does not include 
all of the territory which it inhabits. The greatest destruction has 
been wrought, so far as known, in [hnois, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Mis- 
sourl, South Dakota, Nebraska, Tennessee, and prob- 
ably Kentucky. 
HISTORY OF THE INSECT AND ITS RAVAGES. 
The beetle was described in 1823 by Mr. Thomas 
Say, from specimens taken by him while connected 
with the Maj. Long expedition to the Rocky Moun- 
tains, and its habitat was given by him as the Arkansas 
Territory.’ ; yf 
No facts concerning the habits of this insect were pee 
recorded until the year 1866, when specimens of the worm: Pupa. 
beetles were referred to Mr. B. D. Walsh by Prof. (olen 
W. S. Robertson, of Kansas, who found them in 
large numbers on imphee or sorghum, their natural home being 
a large thistle. Mr. Walsh, in acknowledging the receipt of the 
specimens, stated that he had taken three specimens many years 
before on flowers in central Ilinois.? Eight years later, in August, 
1874, Mr. H. Webber, of Kirkwood, Mo., sent some larve and pupe 
to Prof. Riley, with the complaint that the former were burrowing 
into the roots of his corn and doing considerable damage. In July, 


— a 
1 Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. 3, p. 460, 1823. 
2 Practical Entomologist, vol. 2, p. 10, 1866. 

