The Bulletin 
10>3 
again observed until 8 :06, when she had withdrawn her beak and had 
turned her body so that its long axis was at about an angle of 10 
degrees to the long axis of the plant. At 8 :09 she had completely turned 
around, so that her abdomen was in the egg cavity, where it remained 
until 8 :40. When the abdomen was withdrawn the male dropped off 
the back of the female without having copulated, and, after rolling 
awav from the cornstalk a distance of three or four inches, crawled 
away to a stalk in the next row of corn and commenced feeding. The 
female remained with head up the stalk until about 8 :50, when she 
started away in the opposite direction, proceeding in the usual manner 
of adult bill bugs by moving rather rapidly for a few inches, then 
remaining motionless for a longer or shorter period of time. She ar¬ 
rived finally at a stalk of corn in the next row, a distance of less than 
five feet, at about 10 o’clock; she then remained motionless at the base 
of the stalk for about 35 minutes, finally turning head downward hastily 
at 10:35 and commenced an egg-laying puncture. This cavity was 
completed by 11:15, when she turned around hastily, taking a little 
less than a minute to insert the tip of her abdomen in the cavity, from 
which it was withdrawn at 11:29; within another minute she had 
crawled away from the stalk a distance of three inches, where she re¬ 
mained in the shade cast by a weed until 11:45, where further observa¬ 
tions were abandoned for the time. At shortly after 12 o’clock the 
same femfale was found under a clod within about five inches of the 
place where our observations had been abandoned. 
EGG AND FEEDING! PUNCTURES 
If there is a characteristic difference in the method of making egg 
cavities and feeding punctures, as all our observations would lead us 
to believe, then we have a ready explanation of the reason that we 
have two kinds of punctures in the leaves of corn plants that have been 
injured by the bill bugs, one being circular in outline and the other 
oblong (Fig. 7). We believe from observations that have been made 
on young, rapidly growing plants where beetles were permitted to feed 
only, and in other cases where they were observed to oviposit, that the 
circular holes represent feeding punctures and the oblong holes repre¬ 
sent egg punctures. At one time it was thought that this would enable 
one to readily determine the number of eggs laid in a field, and then, 
by carefully counting the number of females, to be able to calculate 
the average number of eggs laid by females in the field; but this was 
abandoned when it was discovered that eggs were frequently laid loosely 
in the ground. 
EFFECTS OF THE ADULTS ON CORN 
The adults do a great deal of damage to young corn by inserting their 
beaks into the stem, usually below ground, and eating out the tender 
forming leaves (Figs. 10 and 63). This soon makes itself apparent by 
