87 



"As a general thing, I think it has not been so destructive during 

 the past season as it is sometimes ; but in one field of late corn I 

 found nearly every ear eaten by them, there being from one to half 

 a dozen worms to each ear. In many of them, when my observa- 

 tions were made while the corn was yet soft, the process of mould- 

 ing and decay had progressed to such an extent that it was diffi- 

 cult to conceive that such corn could ever become anything fit for 

 man or beast to eat. In some fields I visited the injury was much 

 less, while in others only a few eaten ears could be found." — [Sev- 

 enth 111. Ent. Eep., p. 103. 



During the same year, Professor Thomas received a letter from 

 Mr. W. B. Brown, of Belvidere, 111., accompanying some specimens 

 of Corn-worms for identification, a portion of which will be of inter- 

 est by showing that their injuries extended over a considerable area 

 that season, and the freezing of the larvae in the ear spoken of by 

 Mr. Brown gives us a partial reason why they are not so numerous 

 as far north as Northern Illinois. He says : 



" I found them eating the corn from the cob, or rather they had 

 been eating, for they were all dead when I discovered them, not 

 having made the discovery till after a hard freeze. They commenced 

 at the small end of the ear, and took it all as they went, apparently 

 continuing to work around the ear. I found some ears from which 

 the corn had been eaten off two or three inches." — ("Seventh 111. 

 Ent. Eep., p. 102. 



In his report on this insect as a Boll-worm, Professor Comstock 

 says of its destruction of corn for that year, 1879 : 



"This very season, a writer from Cherokee county, Kansas, ad- 

 dressed Coleman's 'Eural World,' complaining bitterly of the de- 

 struction of the Corn-worm. He states that there was not an ear 

 in his corn-field which the worms had not eaten." — [Eep. on Cotton 

 Ins., p. 289. 



In the "Pacific Eural" for August 16, 1879, I find the following 

 inquiry in relation to the Corn-worm : 



"Will you please inform me if there is any remedy for a worm 

 which works into nearly every ear of sweet corn in my neighbor- 

 hood, near Newcastle, Placer county." — [W. E. S., Sacramento, Cal. 



I made no special observations during 1879, but, from what I saw 

 and from inquiries of farmers, I know the worms were numerous 

 here that year, but not so much so as some seasons. No further 

 special mention of its injury came to my notice for that year. 



The year 1880, with us, was much as the preceding year ; as usual, 

 some worms present in the corn, but the damage not sufficiently 

 serious to call forth comment. I find the following in the November 

 number of the "American Entomologist" for 1880, from E. W. Clay- 

 pole, of Antioch College, 0. : 



"The Boll-worm, or Corn- worm, is exceedingly common and mis- 

 chievous here this year. In some places every third ear contains a 

 worm. In one or two points the published descriptions seem defi- 

 cient. The second brood, now growing, feeds, no doubt, on the 

 milky kernels by choice, but not by any means constantly, nor does 



