69 
INJURIES TO VEGETATION. 
As larvae these species live and feed, as far as known, in the 
roots of grass-like plants, less commonly boring also the lower 
part of the stem. Grasses with bulbous roots, like timothy and the 
3lub rush, are probably their more normal breeding plants. In 
simothy meadows the hollowing out of the root bulb frequently 
dlls the plant,—if not outright, then the following year. The 
arger club rush seems to endure better the attack of the clay- 
3olored bill bug, as several successive bulbs of a series are often 
lound excavated, each having given origin to its plant notwith¬ 
standing the injury. 
The natural food of the robustus larva is unknown, as this has 
?een found feeding only in corn. “Wherever,” says Mr. Howard, 
‘the larva has reached its full size, the pith of the stalk was 
bund completely eaten out for at least five inches. Below ground 
wen the hard, external portions of the stalk were eaten through, 
ind in one instance everything except the rootlets had disappeared, 
ind the stalk had fallen to the ground.” 
“In a great majority of instances but a single larva was found 
n a stalk, but a few cases were found where two larvae were 
it work. In no case had an ear filled on a stalk bored by this 
arva. The stalk was often stunted and twisted, and the lower 
eaves were invariably brown and withered.” 
1 The larva of pcirvulus eats into the grass bulb, commonly from 
leneatli, completely hollowing it out, and scattering a fine meal- 
ike excrement through the earth. The harm thus done is sometimes 
ionsiderable,—five per cent, or more of the stems being deadened, 
—but has never been severe, as far as I now know. In small 
?rain, according to Mr. Webster, pcirvulus hollows out the stem 
letween the first and second joints above the ground, and in 
•orn, burrows in the lower part of the stalk. A small Sphenophorus 
arva found occasionally in the lower part of wheat stems in June, 
.887, by my assistant Mr. Weed, belongs to this species. 
; The natural food of the adult ochreus is, at first, the club rush, 
n whose roots the larva breeds, as was shown in the swamps of 
ford county by the very general and profuse perforation of the 
eaves of this rush where the beetles were themselves abundant. 
By the end of June, however, this plant had become too hard for 
hem, and then the beetles were seen feeding in numbers on the 
erminal leaves and forming spray of blossoms of the common 
eed (PhragmUes communis ), which were rolled together in an 
>blong mass at the tip of the stalk. This they were piercing 
md splitting lengthwise, afterward eating out the succulent young 
r egetation from within. 
The adults of all the species feed in substantially the same 
nanner, as far as observed, and inflict a similar injury on the 
slants they infest. Standing with the head downward and the feet 
unbracing the lower part of the stalk, they slowly sink the beak 
. nto the plant, using the jaws to make the necessary perforation. 
