REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 1918 29 
Broken tassels with extruded borings at the point of injury are 
conspicuous and easily recognized signs of infestation. It is 
important to know that most of the tassel is affected and also to 
keep in mind the fact that tassels may be broken from other causes. 
The occasional hanging of one branchlet of the tassel is very rarely 
caused by the corn borer. Injury to the tassels is sometimes so 
severe as materially to affect the fertilization of the ears. 
The small, oval, whitish feeding spots of the young borers or 
larvae on the leaves aid in the detection of the pest, though this type 
of injury is by no means conspicuous. 
Compared with native corn insects. The European corn borer 
is the only corn pest in America which habitually bores in the stalks, 
in cobs and at the same time injures the kernels (figure 5). It is 
easily distinguished from the earlier appearing lined corn borer and 
the frequently associated stalk borer by the absence of well-marked 
reddish lines. Furthermore, the lined corn borer works almost 
entirely in corn 4 to 6 inches high while the European corn borer is 
rarely seen until the corn is 12 to 15 inches high. The stalk borer 
caterpillar, with its peculiar purplish blotch near the middle of the 
body breaking the well-defined white and purplish brown lines, can 
hardly be confused with the dull-colored European corn borer, 
although its work in the corn is somewhat similar. Furthermore, 
the stalk borer, when full grown may measure 1} inches in length, 
whereas the European corn borer is never more than 1 inch long. 
The corn ear worm, a native southern insect which can not winter 
in this latitude, attacks the tips of ripening ears, the greenish or brown- 
ish strongly marked caterpillars are over an inch long when full 
grown and very different from the European corn borer. Samples 
of corn stalks suspected of being infested by this pest should be sent 
to the farm bureau agent or the nearest entomologist. 
Life history and habits. It is necessary to distinguish sharply 
between the habits of this insect in New York State and in Mas- 
sachusetts. A study of the insect in the vicinity of Schenectady 
shows that it passes the winter as a nearly full-grown borer which 
begins to change to the pupa in June. The first moths emerge in 
June or early July, continue on the wing about a month; there 
being one brood. There are two broods or generations of this 
insect in eastern Massachusetts. The nearly full-grown caterpillars 
in either locality winter in the stems or stalks of corn and various 
other plants. The moths appear on the wing in Massachusetts 
from the middle of May to the latter part of June and in New York 
State during June and into July. They are nocturnal in habit and at 
