149 
and beans; and on the leaves of plums, cherries, apricots, and 
raspberries. Webster has also seen it eating unripe kernels of 
•wheat and corn. 
LIFE HISTORY. 
As is very commonly the case with American injurious insects, 
the life history of this beetle is incomplete. Our studies of it are 
deficient not only in continuity of experimental work, but even in 
a number and distribution of observations and collections suffi¬ 
cient to give us a fair ground of probable inference. We are 
especially uncertain as to the number of broods and the stage 
or stages of hibernation. In the latitudes of Central and South¬ 
ern Illinois it seems most likely that this is a two-brooded in¬ 
sect, but if so, data published from Alabama and Mississippi 
would make it extremely probable that it is three-brooded there. 
Webster’s observations in Indiana would lead us to suppose 
that it hibernates as an adult, he having found it feeding upon 
volunteer oats as late as December 14, and abroad in spring 
as early as April 17, at which time the sexes appeared in 
copula. 
Our own voluminous collection records of the adult do not 
•clearly bear out the suppositions made above concerning the 
hibernation and the number of annual generations of this species. 
Without ever having made any special search for it, I find that 
we have actually obtained it in eighty-two collections,—mostly 
of a miscellaneous character,—ranging from April 20 to Novem¬ 
ber 15. We have thus taken the imago once in April, six times 
in May, eight times in June, sixteen times in July, twenty-eight 
in August, eighteen in September, four in October, and once in 
November—a gradual rise in frequency from April to August, 
and a similar gradual decline thence to the end of the season. 
In our special collections of hibernating insects this species has 
not appeared; and in our large electric-light collections, made 
from May to September in 1886 and 1887, it occurred infre¬ 
quently, and in no case until July. 
As we now understand the subject we may say that in the 
latitude of the southern half of the State the eggs are laid in 
May and June, that the root worms do the greater part of their 
mischief also in these months, pupating from the middle of June 
to the last of July, and yielding the beetle in July and August.. 
The new generation commence to pair by the beginning of the 
month last mentioned, and young larvae of the generation fol¬ 
lowing may be found early in September. 
The larva has first been observed in spring in the latitude of 
Illinois (namely in Maryland) on May 31, and in Virginia June 
18. By the 19th of July this brood of larvae was largely full 
.grown in 1889, larvae, pupae, and freshly emerged imagos occur¬ 
ring at that time at Jacksonville, in Morgan county, in this State. 
We have in fact once seen a freshly developed beetle of this 
