270 



THE BOOK OF CORN 



early part of the season as the corn bud worm. The 

 same worm is found also upon tomatoes, and is called 

 the tomato worm. It is about an inch and a half 

 long when full grown, and varies in color from pah 

 green to dark brown, with longitudinal stripes of the 

 same color. This difference in color is so great as to 

 make them look like different insects; still the mark- 

 ings are the same ; the green worms marked with 

 stripes of darker green, and the brown ones with 

 darker brown. When full grown they leave the ears 

 and crawl into the ground, when they change to 

 chrysalids. See Fig 84. 



There are as many as five broods during a single 

 season in Alabama. There are three normal broods 

 a year as far north as New Jersey, Ohio and northern 

 Illinois, then in South Carolina, north Georgia, Ten- 

 nessee and Arkansas there are probably four broods, 

 and as many as six in south Texas and Florida. Early 

 in the spring, pale, clay yellow moths, with a greenish 

 tinge, emerge. They are very seldom seen, unless 

 disturbed during the day, when they fly out with a 

 quick, darting motion. 



The eggs of the first brood are laid upon the leaves 

 of the corn, upon which the young begin to feed as 

 soon as hatched, gnawing many small, irregular holes 

 through them, giving them a ragged appearance. The 

 brood that works on the ears is produced from eggs 

 laid on the silk ; and when hatched they feed upon 

 the silk ; when they come to the kernels, they work 

 their way around the ears inside the husks, sometimes 

 eating only the outside portion of the kernels, or boring 

 through the under side next to the cob, so that when 

 the husks are stripped back the worm may be nearly 

 half hidden in the corn. As the corn gets hard, those 

 that are full grown leave the ears and go into the 

 ground to undergo their transformations, while others 



