6 BULLETIN 221, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
THE PUPA. 
The first pupe (fig. 4) to be found were in earthen cells in the soil 
near corn plants -at depths of from 4 to 6 inches. The finding of 
pup which were nearly mature at this time, some of which changed 
to adults by the next morning, indicated that the larvee had fied ; 
feeding and were in their pupal cells. 
The pupa is white until within one day of. 
maturity, when it begins to darken. 
In dorsal view the head is bent ventrad; 
the bristles on the head are prominent and 
irregularly placed in a double row on the me- 
dian dorsal line; there is a single row of sete 
above the plural suture; the eighth abdom- 
inal segment has a semicircular row of sete 
and the anal segment is supplied with a stout, 
curved spine; each abdominal segment bears 
several stout setze on the dorsum. In lat- 
Fig. 4.—The southern corn leaf- eral view the body is longer than wide, taper- 
beetle: Pups. Origin’) ing from the fifth abdominal segment; the 
antenne are directed dorsad around the femora of the two front 
pairs of legs, thence backward with the tips lying near the claws 
of the middle legs and on top of them; the elytra and wings are 
rather short, thick, tapering toward the tip, and folded over the 
posterior legs, the tarsi of which reach the eighth segment. In 
ventral view the head is as long as the thorax, directed forward, 
with the front lying between the tarsi of 
the front pair of legs; the elytra and the 
tarsi nearly meet ventrally, forming a deep 
ventral groove. The pupais 5 to 6 mm. long . 
and from 3 to 3.5 mm. wide. 
THE ADULT. 
To the average farmer the beetles (fig. 5) 
can be recognized as small, dark brownish 
beetles, more or less covered with bits of soil. 
They are about three-sixteenths of an inch long 
and about one-third as wide. They have the Ee eae ae 
habit of dropping from their food plant to 
the ground and hiding when disturbed, and owing to this habit they 
are very rarely seen. Quite often farmers have noticed seriously 
damaged young corn, the plants being literally in fragments, and 
have been unable to locate the cause on account of this “habit of the 
beetles of dropping to the ground and hiding. It is sometimes difli- 
cult even for trained entomologists to locate them. 
