64 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
because of injury caused at Stone Ridge, Ulster county, and last 
summer it was brought to notice on account of damage in a corn 
field near Chenango Bridge, Broome county. In this latter instance, 
more than one-half of the corn appeared to be infested with the pest. 
There is also a possibility, however, that in some fields the work of 
grass webworms may have been confused with that of this insect. 
Comparatively httle is known regarding the life history and habits 
of the lined corn borer. The moths appear the latter half of July 
or in early August. It is probable that the partly grown caterpillars 
winter in the sod much as do those of a number of other noctuids, 
as well as the frequently associated grass webworms. When the 
presumably natural food, grass, is destroyed, these caterpillars, like 
the grass webworms, turn to whatever may be at hand and may there- 
fore seriously injure corn. There is a fuller account of this insect 
in New York State Museum Bulletin 175. 
Measures of value against grass webworms should be equally 
effective in checking this less known pest. 
Stalk borer (Papaipema nitela Guen.). The stalk borer 
works in young corn very much as the lined corn borer. It is easily 
distinguished from all other corn-boring insects by the character- 
istic caterpillar about an inch long and strongly marked with pur- 
plish brown and five white stripes, one down the middle of the back 
and two on each side, the latter wanting near the middle of the body, 
due to a blotchlike extension of the purplish brown. This gives the 
active moving caterpillar the appearance of having been injured. 
The moths emerge in late summer, leaving a pupal case in the 
burrow, a condition not true from fall to spring of corn infested by 
the European corn borer. The burrows of the stalk borer are larger 
than those of the European corn borer. 
This native pest not only injures corn but is frequently found in 
a number of thick-stalked plants, specially potatoes, tomatoes and 
dahlias. The borer is a local pest and its operations are mostly 
confined to the outer rows in cultivated fields or to those weedy the 
preceding season. Clean and thorough cultivation is a most effective 
control measure. Cutting and crushing or burning wilting tips is 
also of service. 
Corn ear worm (Chloridea obsoleta Fabr.). This pest 
is the cotton boll worm and the tobacco bud worm of the south. 
It is also known as the tomato fruit worm. It is a southern species 
which ranges north and feeds upon a considerable variety of garden 
crops and is best known in the north because of the caterpillars’ 
work in green corn. ‘They enter the tips of the ears, specially those 
