a - ae 
Se Gian eR, OTE AS RARE 4 Fs 
THE SOUTHERN CORN LEAF-BEETLE. 5 
chloa crus-galli). WKernels of wheat and corn which had been soaked 
in water, pieces of decaying straws, corn pith, and toadstools were 
also tried, with negative results. 
A few larve, fed on a combination of decaying corn pith and 
growing cornroots, failed to mature, probably for other reasons than 
lack of proper food, but were sufficiently large for use in identifying 
those collected in the field. 
Numerous searches have been made in cornfields, wheat fields, 
erass, and fields grown up with weeds, and the larve have not yet 
been found feeding on plants other than corn. lLarve have been 
found in the soil in cornfields where cocklebur and corn plants were 
growing together, and where corn was growing alone, but in no other 
situation. 
The first larve found in the field were observed by Mr. T. H. 
Parks and the writer at Wellington, Kans., on July 20, 1910, in small 
round earthen cells from 4 to 6 inches deep, with a tiny burrow 
leading toward the cornroots, which had been more or less eaten. 
The larve hastily retreated to safety and feigned death when dis- 
turbed. By way of further determining this habit, a larva was 
allowed to crawl on the surface of the soil, when on suddenly jarring 
the soil several inches from it it hastily retreated and ‘‘folded up.” 
Although a diligent search was made for feeding larvee during the 
following days of July and up until the middle of August, none was 
found, though numbers of larvee were unearthed. 
The field in which the larve were first found is the dark waxy 
second bottom land which becomes very gummy and sticky during 
wet weather and very hard during dry weather. The outbreaks and 
damage reported by Prof. Webster, Mr. Tucker, and Mr. King and 
those observed by the writer in Kansas, Texas, and Arkansas have 
all been on soil of this character. In sandy or light soils very few 
larve or pupz have been found and correspondingly few injured 
cornroots have been observed. 
From the laboratory notes made at Brownsville, Tex., latitude 
26°, by Mr. R. A. Vickery, it appears that the larval period probably 
extends from about April 1 to about June 15, while the writer’s 
observations at Plano, Tex., latitude 33°, and at Paris, Ark., latitude 
35°, show that the larval period ranges from April 15 to July 1, and 
at Wellington, Kans., latitude 37°, from May 1 to July 15. 
In the bottom lands of the Arkansas River, near Paris, Ark., the 
larve had pupated and practically all the adults had issued by July 
22, 1914, indicating that they began pupating as early as July 1. 
In the vicinity of Wellington, Kans., the larve began to pupate 
about the middle of July, pupz being found as early as July 20 and 
as late as August 14. The period for maturing the pupa seems to 
be about 15 days, although no exact data have been obtained. 
