2 
This insect seems to have been originally an enemy of sugar cane 
and to have first transferred its attention to corn in the southern 
part of this country, where corn and cane are grown over the same 
territory. It occurs in many countries where sugar cane is the staple 
crop, and has caused great damage in the West Indies, British Guiana, 
Australia, and Java. The bulk of the evidence goes to show that it 
was first brought into this country with the importation of sugar- 
cane cuttings from the West Indies and Central and South America, 
where, since early times, it has interfered with the production of this 
staple. 
In the United States this borer is found almost universally through- 
out the South, from Maryland to Louisiana and westward to Kansas. 
Among other localities it has been reported to the Bureau of Ento- 
mology from Bennettsville, S. C., as destroying corn, especially that 
planted early in the season. From Waynesboro, Ga., in 1909, reports 
were received that in some fields the corn was “at least one-third 
destroyed ” by an insect which later proved to be this species. In 
Virginia it has been found recently at Nathalie, where it was studied 
by Mr. J. A. Hyslop, of this Bureau, at Allenslevel, at Church Road, 
and at Farmville. In late October, 1909, Mr. E. G. Smyth found 
that nearly one-half of the cornstalks at Diamond Springs, Va., 
were infested, often as many as three larve being found in one 
stalk, boring from the surface of the ground down to the base of 
the root; and while the author has frequently found as many as 
a dozen larvee in a single stalk, there are never more than two or 
three pupe in the same stalk. In each case it had damaged the corn, 
and especially that planted early in the season. Detailed investi- 
gations of this insect have been conducted by the author during the 
last two years, chiefly in South Carolina. 
NATURE OF DAMAGE. 
Corn is damaged by these caterpillars in two ways. First, in the 
early part of the season, while the plants are small, they work in the 
“throat” of the young corn, and if the tender growing tip within 
the protecting leaves is once damaged all chances that the plant 
will become a normal productive specimen are gone. In many sec- 
tions of the South this is commonly known as “ bud-worm ” injury, 
and though there are several other insects which cause a similar 
mutilation of the leaf, a very large proportion of the so-called “ bud- 
worm” damage may be charged to this insect. The effect of its 
work on the leaves of the young corn plants is similar to that re- 
sulting from attacks by the corn billbugs (Sphenophorus spp.) and 
is evidenced by the familiar rows of small circular or irregular holes 
across the blades of the plant (fig. 2). 
The other form of serious damage chargeable to this pest occurs 
later in the season. The larve, having then left the leaves and 
[Cir. 116] 
