or irregularly mined by the small, soft-bodied larva known as the southern 

 corn root-worm {Diahrotira 1 .^'-punctata). 



To the Ear. — Injuries to the ear are of two i)rincii)al kinds: the ker- 

 nels may be eaten beneath the husk by a large green or striped caterpillar 

 which bores in from the outside and feeds irregularly about, fouling the 

 ear with its excrement; or the silks may be gnawed away from the tip 

 of the cob at a time to interfere with the process of fertilization, antl 

 thus to blight the kernel. Small damage is also done by various beetles, 

 caterpillars, and grasshoppers, which gnaw away the kernels at the tip 

 of the car whe:e these are exposed by the opening of the husks. This 

 injury, however, is mainly confined to ears upon the ground or to those 

 which have been previously visited by birds. Sometimes the husks are 

 largely eaten away by grasshoppers, together with the softer parts of the 

 young ear itself. 



Injuries to Corn by the Different Orders of Insects. 



Ili/incnopiera: Bees, Wasps, Ants, etc. — With the exception of a small 

 bee (Jldiictus lerouxn) frequently seen gathering corn pollen from the silk, 

 leaves, and husks, but responsible for neither injury nor benefit to the 

 plant, various kinds of ants are the only insects of this order which occur 

 frequently in fields of corn. 



Ants are among the most active, observant, and capable of all insects. 

 Their restless and wide-ranging habits bring them into acquaintance 

 with every variety of objects in their neighborhood, and little escapes 

 their notice or their appropriation which can in an}- way be converted 

 to their support. The abundance of certain s[)ecies in corn fields in 

 spring, shown especially by their burrows in and near the hills of corn, 

 is a matter of conmion observation. Even in fall after frost, or during 

 the warmest days of an open winter, these enterprising rangers may be 

 seen climbing over the dead stalks or coursing irregularly about upon 

 the bare earth; and many of them pass the winter in burrows or nests 

 among the corn roots, where they are turned out in tiie spring plowing 

 with eggs and larvce in their possession. 



A few corn-field ants are directly injurious to corn by hollowing 

 out the softened and sprouting kernels in the earth, thus either pre- 

 venting its germination, killing the young shoot, or weakening it by 

 appropriating the stored food necessary to its earliest growth. The com- 

 mon house-ant has been once or twice reported to gnaw the young corn 

 leaf and drink the sap exuding from the wounds thus made. One species 

 of Southern leaf-cutting ant bites out pieces of the corn leaf, which it 

 carries away to its underground burrows, and certain other ants are 

 found occasionally about the tips of the green ear feeding on kernels 

 which have been injured previously by other insects or by birds. 



Direct injuries of this class are, on the whole, economically insig- 



