15 
municated with twenty.five or thirty different persons who agree with 
the above statement, and we have personally examined different 
fields; and while not able to find the worm spoken of in the suc¬ 
ceeding paragraph taken from the Atlantic Telegraph, and reported 
• by others, we found the roots of the down corn, and some of that 
| yet standing, black and decayed, and bearing evidence of having 
jl been eaten off several weeks ago. The following from the Telegraph, 
! dated at Anita, shows that the scare is not local: “Monday, Mr.’ 
E. 0. Demming brought in several specimens of growing corn eaten 
off at the roots by a small worm, about half an inch long and not 
much thicker than a good-sized pin. He thinks he will have, judg- 
| ing from present appearances, some fifteen acres destroyed by this 
pest. We understand it is found on other farms also. The fields 
where they have worked here are damaged all the way from five to 
fifty per cent.” The occurrence of this beetle in Southern Iowa in 
June of the present year, was also reported to me by Dr. Boardman. 
DESCRIPTION. 
. A general description, sufficient to enable the ordinary reader to 
distinguish this beetle, will be found in the tenth report of this 
office, and in the summary at the close of this paper. A full tech¬ 
nical description of the insect in all its stages is, however, yet a 
desideratum, and is herewith given. 
Imago .—The adult beetle is 
about one-fifth of an inch in 
length by about half that in 
breadth, and a little the widest 
posteriorly. Its head is nearly 
as wide as the thorax, smooth, 
or nearly so, with a large cir¬ 
cular depression between the 
eyes, from which a narrow groove 
leads forward, dividing between 
the antennae and enclosing be¬ 
tween the branches of the fork 
an elevated ridge, which extends 
downwards to the labrum. On 
either side of this, and in front 
of each antenna, the surface is 
minutely rugulose. There is 
also an angular depressed line 
Fig.l. Diabrotica longicovnis. Say. Adult of just within each eye. The an- 
the corn root-worm. Magnified iodiameters, tennae are rather long, extend¬ 
ing backwards beyond the middle of the elytra. The second and 
' jhird joints are short and equal, and together about as long as the 
ourth. The remaining joints of the antennae are of nearly equal 
ength. The first and second joints are nearly smooth, the remain¬ 
der pubescent. The eyes are black, the head and first joint of the 
: mtennae are pale brown, or green, or brownish-green, and the rest 
)f the antennae, the labrum and mouth parts, brown. 
e The thorax is not as wide as the elytra, and is strongly narrowed 
>ehind the middle, making the margin sinuate. The anterior angles 
