55 2 
Vol. XXVI, No. II 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
bundles were rather well distributed over the various fields, which thus 
become generally infested. The fall of that year, being a very dry one 
over the entire area of distribution, was favorable for this pest; since the 
wheat was seeded early and did not sprout until quite late, much of it 
was destroyed by the insect. Comparison of infested with noninfested 
fields showed that the former were trashy while the latter invariably 
were clean. 
The insect has been known almost completely to destroy early sown 
seed wheat in early fall before sprouting has occurred, and growing wheat 
the following spring. More often, however, in dry autumns it attacks 
and destroys seed wheat in little spots or small areas all over a field, 
especially in the vicinity of straw stacks or piles of rubbish and weeds. 
Where the destruction is not complete, the injury is indicated here and 
there by the dwarfed or stunted plants. The larva is ravenous and very 
active, and sometimes as many as from four to six are present about a 
single wheat grain and its sprouts. Several full-grown larvae have been 
found in i linear foot of a single drill row feeding upon the seed. Owing 
to their obscure, underground work a farmer frequently reseeds more 
than once in a single season without comprehending the true cause of 
his losses. 
The percentage of yield lost through depredations of this pest can not 
always be determined. Frequently the extent of damage is not appre¬ 
ciated by the grower, especially during dry autumns, until late in the 
season when rendered apparent by the large, bare spots over the fields 
or the stunted, depleted condition of the growing crop. In extreme 
cases entire fields of wheat have been destroyed completely so that the 
crop was not worth harvesting. 
DESCRIPTION 
EGG (PIG. i) 
The egg is elliptic-cylindrical, bluntly oval in longitudinal section and circular 
in cross section. It is opaque ivory white, and the surface appears smooth both 
under low and high power of the microscope. It 
reflects light slightly from the lighted side. The shell is 
sufficiently tough not to become seriously distorted when 
the egg is rolled around in the soil. Average length 1.5 
to 2 millimeters; width 1 millimeter. 
MATURE LARVA 5 
Length 28 millimeters; color testaceous, with head and 
Fig. i.— Egg of Eleodes suturalis. anterior portion of legs somewhat dark colored; prester¬ 
num, prehypopleurum, anterior and posterior margins 
of prothorax, and posterior margins of the following segments castaneous-testaceous; 
anterior and posterior margins of prothorax and posterior margins of the following 
segments longitudinally finely striated. Surface corneous. Form elongately cylin¬ 
drical, about nine times as long as wide (PI. 1, C); dorsally convex, ventrally slightly 
flattened; pygidium movable in the directions up and down, conical, mucronate. 
Head, ventral sides of the thoracic segments, anterior portion of the sternum of first 
and posterior margin of eight abdominal segments, ninth sternum, legs, and pygidium 
clothed with rigid or soft setae; rest of body glabrous with few, thin hairs. 
Cranium rounded (PI. 1, B), nutant, exserted, three-fifths as long as wide (from 
epistomal margin (epi) to occipital foramen), broadest medianly, dorsally somewhat 
convex. Anterior frontal angle (fa) rounded. Frons (/) three-fourths length of 
6 Description and Plates x and 2, by R. A. St. George. 
