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 will be early forced 
to scatter in search of food, from the fields in which they emeiged, 
and that the eggs will consequently be freely laid everywhere in 
the ground instead of being confined, as now, chiefly to fields or 
corn. Indeed, there is already some serious indication of the^ap- 
proach of this calamity. From Mr. R. C. Davis, of French Grove, 
in Peoria county, I learned that the adult beetle had been seen in 
his vicinity, flying in swarms 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 eggs 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 w T orxn beetle, may 
have forced it to leave the cornfields 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 wfith 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, were found 
in July, 1886, noticeably damaged by the larva of Sphenophorus 
parvulus. Another insect of the same family (Ithycerus novebora- 
censis) was sent me from Bure.au county, with a report of its 
characteristic 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 mcudis) 
i 
