CHAPTER XI 



CORN INSECTS 



The insects feeding on Indian corn are numerous, over two 

 hundred species having been recorded as more or less injurious 

 to some part of the plant. The roots are injured by wireworms, 

 white grubs, corn root-worms, by the larvae of bill-bugs and are 

 infested by the corn root-aphis. The young plants are fre- 

 quently eaten off by cutworms, the leaves riddled by flea- 

 beetles and the crown tunneled by the stalk-borers. The 

 unripe ears are attacked by the ear-worm, which is the most 

 important insect infesting sweet corn. In this chapter no 

 attempt is made to give a comprehensive account of the insects 

 injurious to field corn ; only the more important species are 

 treated and only those most likely to attack sweet corn. 



The Corn Ear-Worm 

 Heliothis obsoleta Fabricius 



The corn ear-worm ranges throughout the United States 

 and southern Canada, southward through Mexico and the 

 West Indies to Argentina. In the Old World it is found 

 throughout Africa and Europe eastward to China, India, the 

 East Indies, Australia and New Zealand. In the southern 

 states, this insect is a serious enemy of cotton and is there known 

 as the cotton bollworm. Corn is the favorite food plant of tliis 



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