486 



CORNICHE 



CORN INSECTS 



districts a row of corbels, carved in the grotesque 

 Teutonic spirit, and bearing the parapet, forms the 

 cornice. A series of small arches frequently rests 

 on the corbels. This is the prominent style of 

 cornice in all Rhenish and Lombardic structures. 



Corbel Table. 



In Early Gothic the small arches become orna- 

 mental taking the form of trefoils with moulded 

 edges, and the corbels become less uncouth. The 

 decorated and perpendicular cornices are chiefly 

 horizontal mouldings, with flowers or heads inserted 



Cornice : 

 Eynsham Church, Oxon, circa 1450. 



as enrichments. The term cornice is also applied 

 to the plaster mouldings seen round the ceiling of 

 rooms at its junction with the walls. 

 Corniche. See RIVIERA. 

 Corniferous Period, name given in North 

 America to the lowest division of Devonian time. 

 It embraces the Corniferous epoch, the Schoharie 

 epoch, and the Cauda-galli epoch. The name 

 Corniferous (Lat. cornu, 'horn,' fero, 'I bear') 

 has reference to the common occurrence in the 

 limestones of a quartzose mineral called homstone. 

 Corn Insects. While numerous insects are 

 of great importance in carrying the fertilising 



pollen from one 

 flower to another, 

 and others are 

 in themselves of 

 direct use to man, 



X'^^l^sJ^CT^''" - there remains a 



vast crowd of 

 more or less in- 

 jurious forms. 

 Of these some 

 attack man and 

 domestic mam- 

 mals, others do 

 damage quite as 

 effectively by in- 

 juring fruit and 

 forest trees, vegetables and crops. A convenient 

 account of these injurious insects will he found in 

 Miss E. A. Ormerod's Manual of Injurious Insects 

 and Methods of Prevention, and fuller details may 

 be gathered from other works mentioned below. 

 It is here proposed simply to give a brief list of the 

 more important insects injurious to corn crops. 

 First then (follo^ng Leunis), we may notice some 

 of those which ^^erably wide in their destruc- 

 tiveness : ( 1 ) Z^fltg/bbus ( Coleoptera, Carabidae ), 

 a dark bronzed l^tle; abundant in Central Europe, 

 less common in England, ravaging wheat-fields, the 

 adults devouring the grain, the larvae the leaves. 

 (2) Melolontha vulgaris, Cockchafer (q.v. ). (3) 

 Rhizotrogits solstitialis, Midsummer Chafer, a beetle 

 nearly related to the last, of generally similar 



Corn Aphis : 

 a, natural size. 



habit, the larvae sometimes injuring the seed. (4) 

 Agriotes lineatus, &c. (Coleoptera, Elateridae), Skip- 

 jacks, Click-beetles, Wireworms (q.v.), injuring 

 root, grain, and fodder crops. (5) Chrysomela 

 cerealis, in the same genus as the Colorado Beetle 

 (q.v.), common in 

 Europe on grasses, 

 and occasionally on 

 cereals. ( 6 ) Cephus 

 pygmceus, Corn Saw- 

 fly ( Hymenoptera, 

 'wood-wasps'), a 

 long, thin-bodied, 

 minute insect, of 

 a brilliant black 

 colour, the larvae in- 

 jurious to wheat and 

 rye, feeding on the 

 inside of the stalk, 

 and eventually cut- 

 ting it through near 

 the ground. (1) 

 Agrotis tritici, &c., 

 ' cut-worms ' ( Lepi- 

 doptera, Noctuidse), 

 common moths 

 whose caterpillars 

 feed upon the roots 

 of grasses and other 

 crops. Neuronia 

 popularis is a similar form also injurious to grasses 

 and the like. ( 8 ) Cecidomyia destmctor, or Hessian 

 Fly ( q. v. ). ( 9 ) Diplosis tritici and aurantiaca, allied 

 to the last, infesting wheat, rye, &c. (10) Antho- 

 myia coarctata (Diptei'a, Muscidae), a fly whose 

 eggs are laid in seed, which the larvae devour in 

 spring. (11) Pachytylus or Oedipoda migratorius 

 and cinerascens ( Orthoptera, Acrididje), locust- 

 like insects, which, like some other members of the 

 order, do great damage when they appear in hosts. 

 Acridium egyptium and Caloptenus italicus are 

 allied forms not infrequently doing great damage 

 to vegetation ( see CRICKET and LOCUST ). 



Wheat crops are specially liable to be attacked 

 by the following insects: (12) Chlorops tasniopus 

 and lineata ( Diptera, Muscidae), flies which deposit 

 their eggs on the ears of corn. The development 

 of the maggots checks the growth, and causes the 

 ears to abort. In Britain barley is oftenest 

 attacked by C. tceniopus, which has received the 



Corn-fly (Chlorops tceniopus) : 

 a, a portion of a culm or stem of 

 wheat with a swollen joint, caused 

 by larva of corn-fly ; 6, larva ; e, 

 pupa ; d, fly, natural size ; e, fly, 

 magnified. 



Corn Ground Beetle : 



1, larva, magnified ; 2, natural size of larva ; 3, perfect insect, 

 female, slightly magnified ; 4, a cell containing pupa ; 6, a 

 burrow. 



name of Gout-fly from the swollen distortions 

 which appear at the joints of infected plants. 

 Towards the end of summer the insects leave the 

 ears as two-winged flies, about the eighth of an inch 

 long, thick and stumpy in shape, yellow, with 



