148 
into the stalk beneath the upper circle of brace roots, or be¬ 
hind the sheath of the lower leaf—habits in which it differs* 
from the northern corn root worm. 
Search for this root worm should be made in or about the- 
injured parts—from the middle of May to the middle of Au¬ 
gust in the latitude of the southern half of Illinois. It is a soft,, 
slender-bodied, worm-like insect, a little over half an inch in 
length when full grown, and nearly ten times as long as thick. 
The surface is slightly wrinkled or warty, white when young, and 
yellowish when old. The head is dark brown, sometimes nearly 
black, and there is a pale brown leathery patch on the top of 
the segment next behind the head, and a nearly circular similar 
patch on the top of the last segment of the body. The legs are 
very short and small, and the skin bears only a few long scat¬ 
tered hairs. 
It seems most likely to attack early planted corn, and hence- 
in the Northern States has been found most frequently in sweet 
corn. An injury of fifty per cent, is a not unusual effect of its 
presence in Southern Illinois, and elsewhere it has been reported 
as sometimes destroying almost every hill when the corn was 
young. 
This corn root worm has not been taken in the act of injury 
to the roots of any other plant than corn, but has once been 
seen eating off a stem of young wheat in fall.* Lugger found 
the pupae among the roots of a common prairie plant, the 
cone flower (Rudbeckia), but says nothing of injury to that 
plant; and my assistant, Mr. Marten, reports the occurrence 
of young larvae among the roots of Cyperus strigosus and 
Scirpus fluviatilis— two sedges common in moist low lands, the 
roots of which presented the same appearance of injury as- 
those of infested corn. 
The food of the adult Diabrotica 12-punctata is widely varied, 
apparently much more so than that of the northern Diabrotica. 
It has been for a long time commonly known as a squash 
beetle, eating both leaves and green fruit of squashes, melons, and 
cucumbers. We have seen it eating into pumpkins, sometimes 
to the depth of half an inch, and feeding upon clover blossoms 
and upon the leaves of tame and wild sunflowers (Helianthus). 
We have found it in Ma}^ eating away the edges of the leaves 
of young corn in the field, and in July and August mak¬ 
ing small round holes in corn leaves in our breeding cages. 
In September and October it has occasionally been taken from 
the tip of the ear of corn, feeding on the silk, and once in August 
we saw it gathering up fallen corn pollen. It has also fed upon 
ragweed leaves in our breeding cages in August. By other ob¬ 
servers it has been reported to feed on the petals of various 
flowers, including roses, dahlias, cosmos, and the cotton plant; 
upon young volunteer oats (December), on certain moulds, on 
the horse nettle ( Solanum canadense), on cabbage, cauliflower, 
* Webster, in Bull. 45 (1892), Ohio Agr. Exper. Station, p. 203. 
