9 
Melanotus fissilis. (Plate VI., Fig. 2.) Page 41. 
Melanotus infaustus. Page 42. 
MeJanotus cribulosus (The Corn Wireworm). (Plate VI., 
Fig. 6-8; and Plate VII., Fig. 1.) Page 42. 
Asaphes decoloratus. (Plate VII., Fig. 2-4.) Page 45. 
DETAILED DISCUSSION OF INJURIES TO THE SEED. 
4 
1. Injuries by ants (Myrmicidse ), which hollow out the kernel, 
commonly scattering the meal through the dirt . 
Injuries to corn by ants are of two kinds; one indirect but 
serious; the other direct, but of little importance because quite 
rare. The former will be treated in connection with insects af¬ 
fecting the root, since it is by rearing, transporting, and foster¬ 
ing the root lice of corn that ants are most injurious; and the 
latter is given here in its place as an injury to the seed in the 
earth. 
Occasionally in searching for the causes of the failure of corn 
to germinate, or to grow thriftily after making its appearance, 
a kernel may be found wholly or partly hollowed out, the mealy 
interior being not devoured, but scattered about, in the earth, 
while the cuticle or outer shell of the seed remains but little dis¬ 
turbed. The agents of this small mischief will frequently be 
found still buried in the cavities they have excavated—most com¬ 
monly ants of a minute pale yellow species, a little more than 
a sixteenth of an inch in length, and very similar in size and 
general appearance to the minute “red ant’’ which often infests 
the pantry. This injury to corn requires no treatment so far as 
is now known, and, indeed, admits of none; but consistently 
with the plan of this treatise, which is intended not only to 
summarize existing knowledge but still more to serve as a basis 
for future investigation, the two species thus far connected by 
us with this injury to corn are here briefly treated. 
Solenopsis debilis, Mayr. “ 
(Plate IT., Fig. 2.) 
This ant is but little known, either to farmers or entomolo¬ 
gists, having, in fact, not been discriminated as a species until 
1886, in which year it was described by Mayrjp of Vienna, from 
specimens sent him from North America. His description, with 
the appended remarks, is the only definite mention of it which 
I have found in the literature of entomology, with the exception 
of my own reference (under the name of S. fngax) to its injuries 
to strawberries and kernels of corn in the earth in the Thirteenth 
T Die Formiciden der Vereiniqten Staafen von Nord-america in VerhandLungen der 
k. k. zool-botan. G-esellschaft in Wim. XXXVI (188ti), p. IGl. 
