INSECTS INJURIOUS TO CORN. 



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either husked or threshed, or in the shock, and fly to the corn and wheat 

 fields and there deposit their eggs in the ears of corn, and earlier in the 

 heads of the developing wheat at about the time the wheat is in the milk 

 stage. Each female lays a large number of light-red eggs, one of which 

 is shown greatly enlarged in figure 69, e. 



These eggs hatch in a few days into minute 

 larvae or caterpillars, which eat their way 

 Ihrough into the developing kernel of corn or 

 wheat, feeding within upon the starchy ma- 

 terial. When this corn ripens and is cut and 

 stacked in shocks, the larvae soon reach their 

 full development, by which time they are up- 

 wards of a half inch in length, and of the 

 general appearance and shape represented in 

 figure 69, a. They then spin a little cocoon 

 within the hollowed out kernel of corn and 

 transform to pupae, one of which is represented 

 in figure 69, b. These pupae transform to 

 adults during the latter part of July, and the 

 moths work their way out and escape. They 

 soon pair and deposit their eggs for another 

 brood upon the corn or grain from which they 

 have emerged. 



If the corn after being cut is soon carried 

 into the barn, or is husked or shelled and stored 

 away in bulk in the granary, these moths that 

 emerge from the seed deposit their eggs there 

 upon it, or in case the corn is not husked or 

 shelled, deposit it upon the ear under the husk 

 at the upper end. The larvae constituting this 

 second brood reach maturity during the fall 

 and hibernate within the kernels of corn, 

 changing to pupae in the spring, and the adult 

 moths appear in May or early June, and seek 

 the new corn and wheat fields. If the grain 

 be stored in warm granaries, there may be 

 as many as four broods during the year in such 

 cases. 



It appears that the adult moths, which de- Fig. 70. — Ear of com show- 

 ing- work of the Angoumois 



posit their eggs in the wheat fields in the early Grain Moth. 



summer, come from the nearby barns and other places where grain is 



stored, either threshed or unthreshed. 



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