100 
The Bulletin 
however, the male releases his hold on the female, usually crawling 
away to another stalk of corn, where he commences to feed, or, if the 
day he well advanced, he may return directly to a retreat. This results 
in very promiscuous matings, for in no case have the same individuals 
been found mated on consecutive days. 
The time spent by individuals in feeding on a given plant varies 
greatly. Usually bill bugs after becoming established on a plant will 
remain as long as an hour, frequently for several hours. Records have 
been made of bill bugs feeding on the same plant for at least twelve 
hours, but such prolonged periods are rather unusual. In all such 
cases the bill bugs have been protected from the hot rays of the sun 
by overhanging corn leaves or they have been protected by being in a 
group of cornstalks. 
In approaching a stalk for feeding purposes, the bill bug seems to 
locate it merely by accident, often passing within a fraction of an 
inch of a stalk that is apparently as good as the one finally selected. 
So far as observed, a stalk had to be directly in the path of the bill 
bug before it was selected. Frequently observations were made which 
would lead one to believe that if the bill bug could not escape it would 
proceed to feed on a stalk of corn that directly blocked its path. Uo 
cases have been observed of a bill bug emerging from its retreat and 
going directly to any stalk of corn; and in very few cases was the stalk 
of corn nearest the retreat selected, and then only after aimless wander¬ 
ings, which usually caused the bill bug to cover many times the dis¬ 
tance required. When an adult finds its path directly blocked by a 
stalk of corn it pauses for a longer or shorter period of time. Event¬ 
ually it crawls up the stalk for a short distance, usually from one and 
a half to two times the length of its body, then turns deliberately 
around with the center of its body as a pivot until its body is parallel 
with the long axis of the cornstalk, with head downward. Usually 
it is then half the length of its body above the surface of the ground. 
It then crawls down the stalk until it reaches the surface of the ground, 
when it may insert its snout into the stalk or it may bury itself par¬ 
tially or completely below the surface of the soil. In making the 
egg-laying punctures the jaws usually tear away portions of the outside 
leaves, but in making feeding punctures the bugs seem for the most 
part to devour the substance of the stalk as the snout is inserted deeper 
into the stalk. 
OVIPOSITION 
Age of Adults At Beginning 
In the insectary during the summer of 1915 all the female beetles 
commenced to lay eggs within two weeks of the time of emergence from 
the pupal cells, if they were provided with suitable food. Inasmuch as 
the beetles usually linger in the pupal cells from five to seven days after 
they have transformed to adults, we are justified in saying that adult 
