This black robust beetle, about one-half inch long, burrows down along the side of the corn seedlings and begins to eat the stalk just above the base of the roots.
These insects prefer old sod growing in low, poorly drained, open fields, such as those often used as pastures. Eggs are laid in these fields during the early summer, and the white grubs emerging from them feed on the dead and decaying vegetable matter accumulated there. They mature in about 2 months.
The adults hibernate in the ground, emerging in late March or early April or about the time corn is beginning to appear aboveground.
