June, ’20] SATTERTHWAIT: habits of calendra pertinax 291 
The writer’s first opportunity for studying the injurious work of C. 
pertinax on a large scale in the field, was in the “Big Field” area near 
Advance, Mo. (See plate 4.) In response to a general billbug ques- 
tionaire, Mr. J. H. Jenkins, whose farm lands include several hundred 
acres of this recently drained, treeless tract, stated, under date of April 
26, 1919, that he had a 25 per cent loss on 100 acres of Reed’s Yellow 
Dent corn, securing only 50 bushels of corn per acre as first crop on 
new land which was plowed in 1917 and cropped first in 1918. 
On May 23, the writer called on Mr. Jenkins, who was, at the time, 
unable to go to his farm. As his brother, Mr. E. B. Jenkins, had 
similar land and a greater billbug loss in 1918, this latter farm was 
visited. The field where the losses were so prominent on this farm, 
was particularly free from weeds, grasses and sedges, and thus without 
host plants for billbugs. It was stated that the condition during the 
corn growing season of 1918 was as now, no grasses or weeds being 
allowed to grow. It was further stated that this land was submerged 
in May, 1918, when a certain diversion canal bank gave way at the 
head of the drainage district as a result of an extraordinary flood. 
This overflow undoubtedly brought in and deposited whatever billbugs 
were involved in the destruction of the corn. 
Mr. Jenkins stated that there were wild grasses on the J. H. Jenkins 
farm, some two miles north, and similar wild plants on the J. L. Cook 
farm lying between. 
Dr. Cook’s farm was visited at a point in the open area a short dis¬ 
tance east of the tenement house which is situated in the woods. The 
peaty soil here is very subject to ignition from bonfires, and is of such 
a character that one may shake the surface for a possible radius of 50 
yards. Large wooden shoes are attached to the feet of horses and 
mules used in the “Big Field” to keep them from sinking too deeply 
into the soil. 
Wild iris occurred sparingly and showed no billbug infestation, but 
the common cat-tail was rather abundant in patches and Calendra 
pertinax adults were found on a heavy proportion of the stalks, with 
feeding and egg punctures in nearly all. In a little while, 15 adults 
and numerous egg-infested stalks were collected for study at the 
laboratory. The feeding holes of C. pertinax in cat-tail stalks are 
largest at the stalk surface, usually as wide as the width of the adult. 
They are sometimes circular and sometimes twice as long, up and down 
the stalk, as wide, and occasionally deep enough for more than half 
of the adult to be within the contour of the stalk. It is similar to the 
gnawing work of a small rodent. (PI. 5, fig. 1.) The egg punctures are 
without excavation, a slit being cut through the outer surface of a leaf- 
sheath or, if deeper, through one more outer than inner surface, and 
