62 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
Borers in the tassel, stalk and all parts of ear, late July to fall, never 
more than three-fourths of an inch long, yellowish white, minutely 
brown spotted. European corn borer}: 
Borers in the tip of ears in late summer and fall, 13 inches long when 
full grown, strongly marked, green, brown or nearly black. 
Corn ear worm 
Grass webworms (Crambus luteolellus Clem. and other 
species). These occasional pests of young corn are dirty yellowish, 
brown spotted caterpillars about three-fourths of an inch long when 
full grown. They live in webby shelters about the base of the 
young plants, feeding upon the lower portion of the leaves and the 
sta'k but do not bore into the center like the lined corn borer, the 
stalk borer or the European corn borer. Ordinarily the depredations 
of these pests in cultivated fields are limited to portions adjacent 
to mowings or pastures or to crops planted upon badly infested and 
recently turned sod. The latter is due to the fact that the grass 
webworms pass the winter as partly grown caterpillars and when the 
sod is destroyed they must feed upon whatever else remains upon the 
soil or perish. There are several species of Crambus having these 
general habits, the three in New York State most commonly asso- 
ciated with injury to corn being Crambus luteolellus 
Clem.,C. vulgivagellus Clem. andC. trisectus Walk. 
The adults or moths are known popularly as close-wings and are 
easily recognized by the somewhat peculiar habit of flying a short 
distance and alighting on a stem or blade of grass with the wings 
rather tightly wrapped about the body, hence the common name. 
These moths are yellowish gray and have a wing spread of approxi- 
mately one-half of aninch. They are frequently extremely abundant 
in grass fields and when they are specially numerous one season 
there is considerable danger of injury to corn if it be planted upon sod 
the following year. There are some sections of the State where 
webworm injury appears, for some reason or other, to be more common 
than in other parts. 
These grass webworms not only injure corn but occasionally 
become so extremely abundant as to cause serious damage to grass 
lands. This was the case in the St Lawrence valley in 1881. At 
that time extended areas were practically devastated by caterpillars 
of these inoffensive moths. The same thing occurred, though 
on a smaller scale, in portions of Albany, Columbia and Rensselaer 
counties in 1905, and in Broome county and probably adjacent areas 
‘See also page 32 for differences between this pest and a comparatively 
harmless smartweed borer occasionally found in nearby growing corn. 
