The Bulletin 
13 
COMMON NAMES 
The southern corn hill bug has a large number of names in this State, 
the most common being derivatives of the name “Curlew Bug.” The 
name “Curlew Bug” is given on account of its fancied resemblance to 
the Curlew. The curlew was a fairly common bird on our coast with 
a long curved bill resembling to a certain extent the snout of the corn 
bill bug. Some of the more common corruptions of the name “Curlew 
Bug” are “Klew” or “Clew Bug” and “Curlie Bug.” It is also gener¬ 
ally known as “bill hug” and “corn bill bug.” The rice growers speak 
of it familiarly as “Bice Bug” and “Bice Bill Bug.” In other sections 
it is known almost exclusively as “Chufa Bug” from its habit of feeding 
to a great extent upon the chufa. Other names may be used in various 
localities, but in the writer’s experience these names are the ones most 
commonlv used. 
In this report the writer has adopted the name Southern Corn Bill 
Bug to distinguish it from other corn bill bugs found in other parts 
of the country. The writer feels that the selection of this name needs 
t/ 
no special defense. He has selected it in place of the more common 
“Curlew Bug” for the reason that it calls to one’s attention at once that 
this is the bill bug that is especially destructive to corn in the Southern 
States which the name curlew bug does not suggest. 
INSECTS WHICH ARE OFTEN MISTAKEN FOR THE SOUTHERN 
CORN BILL BUG 
There are in this State many different kinds of snout beetles, any 
one of which is apt to be mistaken by the farmer for the Southern Corn 
Bill Bug; but so far as the writer is aware, none of these snout beetles 
save the corn bill bug has the habit of feeding at the base of corn¬ 
stalks, head downward. (Big. 5.) 
The work of various kinds of insects is often mistaken for the work 
of the corn bill bug. One of the most characteristic things about a 
plant injured by the adult Southern Corn Bill Bug is the presence of 
transverse rows of holes across the leaves. At least three other insects 
in this State also eat rows of holes across the leaves. These are the 
larger cornstalk-borer, the corn ear-worm, and the adult of the Southern 
corn root-worm. The work of the Southern Corn Bill Bug may be 
distinguished from the work of these three insects by its greater 
regularity. (Big. 7.) This is due, no doubt, to the fact that the corn 
bill bug works well down at the base of the stalk in the “bud,” whereas 
the other insects work in the top in the unfolding leaves. Of these 
three, the work of the larger corn stalk-borers on the unfolding leaves 
resembles most closely the work of the corn bill bugs. The work of the 
stalk-borer is never quite so regular, however, as the corn bill bug’s 
work, and frequently the rows of holes are only on one side of the 
heavy mid-rib, whereas in the case of the corn bill bug they are on both 
