Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 3, January 19, 1884.: A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and FiresideVarious
Science
Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 3, January 19, 1884.: A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and Fireside
Various
Agriculture -- United States -- Periodicals; Farm life -- Periodicals; United States -- Rural conditions -- Periodicals
S. A. FORBES.
NORMAL, ILL., January 3.
P.S.--You will probably remember that I published a paper on this insect
in THE PRAIRIE FARMER for December 30, 1882.
* * * * *
The following is the description referred to:
_From the "Crop Report" for 1882._
"The corn-root worm, in the form in which it affects the roots of corn,
is a slender white grub, not thicker than a pin, from one fourth to
three-eighths of an inch in length, with a small brown head, and six
very short legs. It commences its attack in May or June, usually at some
distance from the stalk, towards which it eats its way beneath the
epidermis, killing the root as fast as it proceeds. Late in July or
early in August it transforms in the ground near the base of the hill,
changing into a white pupa, about fifteen-hundredths of an inch long and
two-thirds that width, looking somewhat like an adult beetle, but with
the wings and wing-covers rudimentary, and with the legs closely drawn
up against the body. A few days later it emerges as a perfect insect,
about one-fifth of an inch in length, varying in color from pale
greenish-brown to bright grass-green, and usually without spots or
markings of any kind. The beetle climbs up the stalk, living on fallen
pollen and upon the silk at the tip of the ear until the latter dies,
when a few of the beetles creep down between the husks, and feed upon
the corn itself, while others resort for food to the pollen of such
weeds in the field as are at that time in blossom. In September and
October the eggs are laid in the ground upon or about the roots of the
corn, and most of the beetles soon after disappear from the field. They
may ordinarily be found upon the late blooming plants, feeding as usual
upon the pollen of the flowers, and also to some extent upon molds and
other fungi, and upon decaying vegetation. There can be no further doubt
that the insect is single-brooded, that it hibernates in the egg as a
rule, and that this does not hatch until after the ground has been
plowed and planted to corn in the spring probably in May or June.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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