14 
and figures the beetle and a grain of injured corn. He had pre¬ 
viously published the same observation in the ‘‘Daily Gate Citv” 
of Keokuk, Iowa, for June 28, 1885. 
Description —Length, 6-8 mm., about three times as long as 
wide, a little depressed. Color black, shining, extensively marked 
with brownish or reddish yellow; legs, palpi, and base‘of anten¬ 
na pale brownish yellow. Head entirely black, thorax and 
wmg covers widely margined with brownish yellow, the win«- 
covers also narrowly margined on the inner edge, and often in 
bont. Disk of prothorax often more or less brownish vellow. 
Beneath black, the prothorax and tip of abdomen more or 
less brownish or yellowish. Mentum not toothed at middle 
antennae with two basal joints smooth. Prothorax a little 
broadei than long, much narrowed behind, hind angles rounded 
adjacent impressions feeble and punctate. Wing covers with 
distinct scutellar stria, a siDgle hair-bearing puncture on the 
inner edge of the third interval behind the middle. 
Aphodius granarius, Linn.* 
(Plate II.. Fig. 4.) 
The fact that a common small shining black dung beetle very 
abundant m stable manure, where it feeds in part on particles 
o undigested giain, may under favoring conditions transfer its 
attentions to f-eed corn in the hill, gives occasion for brief men¬ 
tion or this insect here. 
Our only knowledge of this injury comes from Professor C. H. 
hernald of the Massachusetts Agricultural College,! who received 
spec-miens of this beetle from Lancaster, Massachusetts, with 
the statement that they had been found destroying seed corn in 
the ground before it sprouted. 
• s &ys, “has long been known in America, hav¬ 
ing found its way here many years ago from Europe, its native 
country. The different species of Aphodius, while in the larva 
state feed in stable manure, and if this be used as a fertilizer in 
the hills these insects will emerge at the very place where they 
can do great damage. They are also liable to attack the vari- 
° 4 US U , inc * s °f se ^d grain which have been sown on lands where 
stable manure is used. In this case, however, the loss is not so 
noticeable, since the destruction of a few kernels of wheat 
usually provokes only the remark that ‘it did not come up.’ 
above. 1S SPe016S mar ev,dently ilde s‘ ™rn in the hill under circumstances like those niven 
+ BulJ. No. 1. Hatch Experiment Station. Mass. Agr, Coll., p. 3. 
