4. BULLETIN 221, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
on other plants at egg-laying time. In the laboratory, under arti- 
ficial conditions, the eggs will hatch in from 6 to 10 days, rarely go- 
ing as long as 15 days. Eggs have been observed from early April 
in northern Texas till the middle of May in Kansas. : 
THE LARVA. 
The newly-hatched larve are nearly cylindrical, about 1 mm. 
long and 0.03 mm. in diameter, tapering slightly and becoming 
somewhat flattened toward the posterior 
extremity. They are pale yellow, except 
the first thoracic segment and head, 
which are creamy white. The head is a 
little broader than the thorax, and the 
body is covered with downy hairs. 
Within five days after the hatching the 
larvee become a creamy white, which color 
is retained until maturity. 
The mature larve (fig. 3) are 6 to 8 mm. in length and about 2 mm. 
in diameter. The head is slightly smaller than the thorax, the body 
becoming a little larger toward the anal extremity. The thoracic 
segments bear stout legs, and beginning with the second abdominal 
segment the next seven segments each bear a pair of ambulatory pro- 
cesses (fig. 3, @) which terminate in a long hair, accompanied by four 
shorter hairs. The anal plate (fig. 3, 6) consists of five parts, which 
are very characteristic of this species and form 
a character which separates it from all other 
larve of the Eumolpini group. 
During the last six years the writer and 
other members of the Bureau of Entomology 
have been making efforts to rear the larve of 
this species from egg to maturity, in order to 
determine definitely its food plant and exact 
life history. In the laboratory almost every 
form of receptacle has been used that could 
be devised, from a tiny vial with several 
kinds of food in it, fitted with blotting paper 
to absorb undue moisture, to flowerpots buried The shee 
in the soil, which it was thought might simu- beetle: Larva. a, Ambulatory 
late more natural conditions. erabmeten reais a 
The list of growing plants involved in these experiments is as follows: 
Cocklebur (Xanthium spinosum), smartweed (Persicaria hydropiper), 
Japan clover (Lespedeza striata), crab grass (Syntherisma sanguinale), 
sorghum (Sorghum vulgare), alfalfa ( Medicago satwa), cotton (Gossy- 
pium sp.), corn (Zea mays), wheat (Triticum vulgare), bluegrass (Poa 
pratensis), pigweed (Chenopodium sp.), and barnyard grass (Hchino- 
Fic. 2.—The southern corn leaf-beetle: 
Eggs. (Original.) 
