25 
By Packard it was said in 1883 to occur in the roots of the 
squash, seemingly in both iarva and imago states;* and Dr. 
Lintner, State Entomologist of New York, mentions in his Sixth 
Report (p. 188) the receipt from Prof. C. H. Peck of several ex¬ 
amples of this species taken July 4, eating into squash vines. 
Other foods of the adult are decaying corn stalks, cabbage, and 
other plants, the oozing sap of trees, the blossoms of composite 
plants, and the pollen and anthers of corn. It frequently follows 
the corn worm and other burrowing larvae into corn and other 
vegetation, feeding probably upon exuding sap and excrement; 
and it occurs in the apple in the burrows of codling moths. It 
is also an occasional pest in the pantry, infesting bread and 
other cooked foods. 
The feeding habits of the larva are much less known, the 
single doubtful statement of Packard as to its occurrence in 
-squash vines being the only published record I have seen. Our 
own notes show, besides its occurrence in corn, that the larvae 
breed in rotten apples, specimens having been reared bv us from 
crab apples in 1885. 
The annual number of its generations has not been deter¬ 
mined, but our breeding notes tend strongly to establish the 
occurrence of more than one brood in a year.’ Adults have been 
collected by us as early as March 10 to 14 (1885), at which 
time they were hibernating under leaves, and as late as Novem¬ 
ber 15 (1884), when they were taken from piled-up drift wood 
and leaves near a slough. In both cases the beetles were evi¬ 
dently in winter quarters. Our numerous collection records show 
that the species is common in the adult stage in Central Illinois 
through April and May and until about the middle of June. 
May 16 is our earliest date for the observation of the larva, 
other examples occurring from June 16 to 20. By the middle 
of July the beetles again become abundant, continuing common 
throughout the remainder of the year, our dates of capture at 
this season ranging from July 10 to November 15. Larvae of 
what is probably a different generation from those mentioned 
above were collected by us in crab apples and transferred to a 
breeding cage. October 6 larvae, pupae, and imagos were taken 
from this cage, and by the 16tli others had completed their 
transformations, and still others by the 21st. 
It appears from these observations that the species hibernates 
as an adult, and that it gives origin during the year to at 
least two generations,! breeding in corn, apples, and doubtless 
other vegetable substances. 
The larva enters the earth to transform, making a friable 
earthern cell. 
* Guide to Study of Insects, 1883, p. 445. 
t See also Caulfield, Can. Ent., XX., p. 198. 
