October, ’24] 
turner: tule billbug 
529 
Introduction 
Extensive injury to corn, sugar cane, small grains and grasses by the 
group of insects known as billbugs frequently occurs in many parts of the 
United States, especially to plantings on newly reclaimed swamp lands. 
In California such damage is much less common, but injury to small 
grains by a species locally known as the ‘‘tule billbug” 2 is occasionally 
reported, and these instances seem to warrant the publication of such 
information as has been secured concerning that insect. So far as the 
writer has been able to learn no detailed observations of this billbug have 
ever been carried through, even for one season; and for this reason an 
effort has been made to learn something of its life history in Central 
California. 
Distribution 
While the tule billbug has come under the writer’s observation only in 
the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta lands and the lower Sacramento 
Valley, its distribution probably coincides with that of its native food 
plant, the large rush known locally as the tule, 3 which is found through¬ 
out California. Leng lists ( Sphenophorus ) Calendra discolor only from 
California in his Catalogue of Coleoptera of North America. 
Character of Damage to Growing Grain 
The injury is the result of the feeding habits of the adult. With the 
long proboscis the billbug eats into the stem of the plant in the boot, or 
a few inches below the head in more mature grain. The appearance of 
the plant attacked is conspicuous and readily recognized, the stem 
being nearly or completely eaten through, the head becoming whitened 
or bleached and without kernels or with shrivelled kernels, depending on 
whether the injury occurs before or after the grain is formed, and the 
plant rendered worthless except for forage. Barley has suffered the 
greatest damage by this insect; but injury to wheat and oats has also 
been observed. So far as known the larvae under field conditions feed 
only in the rootstocks of the tule and never on the roots of cultivated 
crops; though A. F. Satterthwait informs us, by letter, that he reared 
them to adults in the laboratory on timothy corms and sections of corn 
stalk. 
Description and Habits 
The egg is white, with a pearly luster, slightly kidney shaped, about 
one-eighth of an inch in length and one-half that in its shorter diameter. 
2 Sphenophorus) Calendra discolor Mann. 
z Scirpus occidentalis Chase. 
