INJURING THE EARS. 219 



parent is a good-sized, greenish-yellow moth (Fig. 

 116, e,f) with a conspicuous black spot near the 

 middle of the front wings, and various olive or ru- 

 fous markings. These insects deposit their eggs 

 anong the silks of the young ears. The larvse soon 

 hatch and eat through the husk to the succulent 

 kernels beneath, which they devour greedily for sev- 

 eral weeks, gnawing irregular channels along the 

 cob. When full-grown (c) they are an inch and a 

 half long, of a pale green or dark brown color, orna- 

 mented with longitudinal darker stripes. They now 

 leave the ear, and, entering the soil a few inches, 

 form loose cocoons of silk with particles of soil in- 

 termixed, within which they change to chestnut- 

 brown pupae (d), emerging about a fortnight later as 

 moths. At the north there are two broods, a third 

 one occasionally developing in exceptionally long- 

 seasons, while at the south there are four or five. 

 The first brood is especially likely to infest early 

 sweet corn in gardens. 



Remedies. — Hand-picking is the only remedy 

 that has been suggested, except that of catching the 

 moths by light-traps. The silk of infested ears shows 

 the presence of the larvae by being prematurely dry 

 or partially eaten, and the larva' may be readily 

 found and crushed. In garden patches of sweet 

 corn, at least, this method is worth using. In fields, 

 fall plowing will help to reduce the amount of dam- 

 age by destroying the pupae, either directly, or indi- 

 rectly by exposing them to the weather and birds. 



