21 
3ned the fields, to any considerable extent, in search of food. A 
w were still feeding upon the kernels of corn at the tips of the ears, 
n the 25th, Dr. Boardman, of Elmira, found the abdomens of the 
11 - . i, eggs. At this time, at Normal, they were 
i en occasionally copulating, and occurred about equally upon flowers 
smartweed and ragweed and in the tips of the ears of corn. In 
Jpe field where the corn had been attacked by blackbirds, which had 
I rn open the husks and pecked and broken the skin of the kernels, 
ie beetles were nearly all found in the ear, and scarcely any upon 
Le weeds. This fact indicates that the insect is commonly pre¬ 
dated from eating the corn by its inability to break the epidermis 
! ter the grain has commenced to harden. 
On the 27th, Dr. Boardman writes that in the mornings, when the 
r is cold, he finds the beetles hiding under the clods and in crev- 
es in the ground. 
On the 1st of October, a letter from Mr. Sidney Lattin, of Shab- 
>na Grove, in DeKalb county, contained the following item: ‘T 
id, in gathering corn for feed, great numbers of the corn-beetle, 
id a load of snapped ears contains hundreds, if not thousands, of 
em.” 
On the 3d of October, they were noticed in the University grounds 
Normal, probably feeding upon the blossoms of clover, with which 
|je campus was covered. 
On the 7th, a few were still found in the silk of soft, green nub- 
I ns of corn, and a few were obtained by sweeping dead ragweed 
id smartweed in the field; but the greenest clumps of smartweed 
ire swarming with them. 
On the 13th, in a weedy field of corn from which the stalks had 
en cut, but very few beetles indeed were found either about the 
^eds or upon the ground or under clods, an hour’s search yielding 
ily three specimens; but in an adjoining turnip-field they were 
jute numerous upon the leaves. 
‘On the 14th of October, they were noted as evidently very much 
ss numerous than before, in the fields of corn which had previously 
en alive with them. 
i On the 18th, I carefully searched the stalks and ground for Inher¬ 
iting beetles in one of the worst infested corn-fields, but found, in 
i hour’s time, only three living beetles and two dead ones, the 
tjtter covered with mold. In sweeping the weeds, but two or three 
quid be taken in the course of a minute. The beetles had now 
rtainly nearly all left the field, and eggs were found in the abdo- 
^3ns of none of those obtained. In the clover adjacent to the corn 
jB Diabrotica was abundant, sometimes four or five specimens oc- 
rring on a head; but none were found at the roots of the grass 
under matted vegetation. 
On the 14th of this month a careful search in .a badly infested 
Id gave only a single specimen, found alive in the ground, and 
other, dead, in the same situation. 
On the 8th of November, dead females were seen in the ground, 
■ en at a considerable depth, and frequently surrounded by clusters 
the eggs which had been previously determined as those of Dia- 
)tica. 
•2 
