41 
he period of active larval life of Cyclocephala seems to termi¬ 
nate on an average only three or four weeks before that of 
Lachnosterna. Injury in spring by this grub is consequently to 
le anticipated if it has reached the winter without transforming, 
;he difference being simply that this injury will not continue 
piite so long as in the case of the Lachnosterna grub. 
FOOD AND FEEDING HABITS. 
Food of larvae .—No list of the food plants of our American 
vhite grubs has ever been prepared, and nothing whatever is 
mown of preferences with respect to food, if such exist, among 
he various species. Grass, clover, and all cereal crops are sub- 
ect to their injury, and potatoes, strawberries, and many other 
garden plants, are often damaged and destroyed by them. Some 
species also, if not all, feed freely on the roots of trees and do 
> - reat damage in this manner to nursery stock, evergreens and 
;he like. The grubs of tristis and ilicis are perhaps most in- 
urious in this way, as these species were most frequently 
‘ollected in woodlands. 
That they may live for a considerable period on earth alone 
s shown by Dr. Rilejy who says that he has known the larvae 
if the common May beetle to feed for three months upon 
lothing but pure soil.* 
As illustrations of the injury inflicted in Central Illinois at 
:he present time I will describe two instances of damage to 
vheat and one to corn. 
Mr. John Upton's Field .—In a field of fall wheat in Sangamon 
county, visited Nov. 29, 1886, in response to a request from 
:he owner, I found many dead stools everywhere throughout 
lie field, and occasionally patches fifteen or twenty feet across 
vhich were completely killed. The dead plants were invariably 
>aten off from very near the surface to half or three quarters 
if an inch below, the stems irregularly gnawed away, and the 
*oots entirely gone. There was nothing whatever at the time 
xbout the plants or in the earth to explain the injury, but at 
x depth of about a foot and a half the white grubs were found 
especially abundant beneath the borders of the injured plots. 
This ground had been in corn for the three preceding years,— 
rom 1883 to 1885,—in wheat in 1882, and in corn in 1881. It 
vas sowed to wheat in the fall of 1885, and yielded in 1886 
twenty bushels of wheat per acre. As many of the grubs in this 
leld were full grown, we are compelled to believe that the eggs 
lad been laid in the corn. 
Mr. E. E. Chester's Field .—In a field of winter wheat in Cham¬ 
paign sown on corn ground, and visited June 6, 1889, patches 
occurred from two feet to two or three rods in diameter on 
vhich wheat was entirelv wanting or greatly diminished in 
i/ ~ CD «v 
* St. Louis “Globe-Democrat,” March 25, 1S7(3. 
