The Bulletin. 25 



Life-history and Habits. — The adult insect is a delicate little moth of 

 silvery-gray color, which frequents grassy fields, where the eggs are laid 

 in summer and fall. The larvae normally live upon grasses, eating into 

 the stems or bulbous roots at the surface of the ground. When corn 

 is planted on land just from sod the larvse are often already present in 

 great numbers, and being deprived of their natural food of grasses, they 

 attack the corn, eating into the stalk at the surface of the ground, each 

 larva being somewhat protected by a loose web which acts as a barrier 

 to predaceous enemies and parasites. When grown the larva is about 

 three-quarters of an inch in length, yellowish-white, pinkish, reddish, or 

 even of a reddish-brown color, being quite variable. In midsummer 

 they change to the pupa state at or close to the base of the plant, and 

 emerge as moths two weeks later. Eggs are at once laid in grass lands, 

 where the partly grown larvae pass the winter and are ready to com- 

 mence feeding as soon as spring opens. 



REMEDIES. 



By avoiding corn immediately after sod much of the injury by this 

 insect will be averted. If sod land is to be planted in corn, fall plowing 

 will kill many of these insects by exposure or starvation. 



THE LARGER CORN STALK-BORER. (DiatrcEa saccharalis, Fab.) 



Order Lepidoptera. Family Pyralidce. 



(Sometimes called "Shatter- worm.") 



Description. — Whitish caterpillars with brown or black specks, reach- 

 ing length of about 1 inch, injuring corn by boring into the stalk 

 and (when corn is young) into the terminal growing part, causing weak- 

 ness and distorted growth, rendering the plant worthless when the attack 

 is severe. Injury becomes evident in June. The adult moth measures 

 about an inch from tip to tip of wings, is yellowish-brown, and is an 

 active flier. 



Injury in North Carolina. — This is a prevalent pest in this State and 

 at times very destructive. While most of the complaints have come 

 from the southern and southeastern counties, we believe it to be present 

 throughout the State, at least east of the mountains. We have reports 

 of it from the following widely separated counties, as well as many 

 others : Alamance, Columbus, Duplin, Edgecombe, Mecklenburg, Euth- 

 erford, and Warren. It is considered to be rather a southern insect, and 

 is a standard pest of sugar-cane in Louisiana. 



At Red Springs, Robeson County, in 1902, the writer found it abun- 

 dant and destructive, as many as six of the worms being taken from a 

 single stalk, and from 10 to 15 per cent of the stalks were ruined. At 

 Raleigh, in July, 1913, I found much injury by it in a garden, the worms 

 even working in the tops which were bunched for tassel; in the stalks 

 3— May 



