108 
The Bulletin 
“Only one record has been secured of actually finding the beetles 
in a place where they presumably pass the winter. On November 4 
and 5, 1911, in company with Mr. J. A. Hyslop of the National Bureau 
of Entomology, adult bill bugs were found in corn stubble in a field 
on Harvey’s Neck in Perquimans County. The trip to this field was 
made for the express purpose of trying to find the beetles, for it was 
assumed if any were found on that date that they would he in hiberna¬ 
tion for the winter. After considerable search we located a dead beetle 
in a cornstalk. This beetle was at a point in the stalk about even with 
the surface of the ground. Soon afterwards we found another dead 
beetle in a similar location. On the second day three live beetles were 
found in cornstalks in a field where serious hill bug damage had occurred 
during the summer. Apparently these beetles had matured late and 
had not attempted to escape. We consider this to be proof of the 
hibernation actually occurring in the cornstalks. The beetles were in 
the stalk near the roots where the larva had fed and transformed. 
“During these two days when beetles were found in cornstalks, we 
also searched for the beetles and the immature stages, in cyperus plants, 
hut without success. In fact, there were only a few cyperus plants 
found in which Sphenophorus larvae had lived. The writer believes, 
however, that the hill bugs had bred in cyperus in these fields in plants 
that had died down and become invisible. 
“Hibernation must also occur in the soil, or under the protection of 
some material in the fields, as well as in cornstalks. The breeding of 
beetles during the past summer, when every reared specimen emerged 
and fed nearly every day thereafter until the middle of November, 
shows that it is the natural thing for the beetles to come out and feed 
after maturity. If this is true, the majority of the hill hugs are not 
hibernating in cornstalks unless they crawl into the stalk when cold 
weather commences. That this actually occurs is extremely doubtful. 
The beetles found in the cornstalks had certainly never emerged, and 
no beetles were found under conditions to indicate that they had crawled 
into the stalk. 
“On November, 5, 1911, Mr. Hyslop found one healthy live pupa in 
a cornstalk. This indicates a possibility of the pupae living in that 
situation all winter. The rearing records, however, do not indicate 
that pupae are liable to live all winter. This point needs further 
investigation, hut in view of present knowledge we may consider that 
only the mature beetles normally live during the winter. 
“The writer has searched for the beetles in winter quarters in fields 
at Lumberton, Chadbourn, Braswell, Pembroke, and other places, in¬ 
cluding the fields around West Baleigh, where many hill hugs bred 
during the last two seasons. Without recording details of the work, 
it may be stated that the beetles have never been discovered during 
the winter months, that is, December to March, inclusive, except in 
one instance, at Chadbourn, when a single specimen was taken in the 
