22 
nowned “lady bugs,” kindly looked upon by the whole civilized 
world as friends of no uncertain color, have also occasional lapses 
from virtue, when pressed by hunger or actuated by whim. 
The common spotted lady bug.is often abundant in corn fields, 
where, as dissection usually demonstrates, it is in search of the 
falling pollen of the plant, or of minute fungi which speck the 
withered leaves, or of the plant lice which infest the foliage, tas¬ 
sels and husks; but last August, we saw it eating the exposed ker¬ 
nels’ at the tip of the ear, hollowing out their substance, and partly 
buried in the cavities thus made. 
But it is perhaps fortunate that the lady bugs have the power of 
sustaining themselves for a time on other than their favorite food, 
for no one who knows the efficiency of this species as a check on 
the multiplication of the corn plant louse can fail to yield it gladly 
the few kernels of corn needed to tide it over a period of danger¬ 
ous scarcity of its animal food. 
5. The Brassy Flea Beetle. 
('Chcetocnema pulicaria, Or.) 
Order Coleoptera. Family Chrysomelidhl 
This abundant little flea beetle, one of the commonest and most 
widely distributed, was twice noticed in young corn during the last 
season in numbers sufficient to inflict noticeable injury at the time, 
by riddling the leaves with small holes. 
6. Leaf Hoppers, 
Tettigonule. 
Jassus inimicus, Say. 
Cicadula nigrifrons, n. s.* 
Cicadula quadrilineatus, n. s.* 
Macropsis nobilis. 
Among the various species of leaf hoppers found upon young corn, 
those above mentioned have occasionally occurred in our experi¬ 
ence in sufficient numbers to injure the plant appreciably in June 
and July. The three species first mentioned are more fully treated 
under the head of Insects Injurious to Wheat. 
7. Grasshoppers (Acridid.e) in Corn. 
The damage done to Indian corn by the common species of g rass ; 
hoppers has been often enough reported, and is known to every 
one, but the species responsible for it have rarely been precis 
*See page 03. 
