INSECTS INJURIOUS TO CORN 181 



young corn-plants, the plants having been severely gouged. 

 After the plants grow 10 to 15 inches tall they do not kill them, 

 but gouge out such large cavities in the stalks that they become 

 twisted into all sorts of shapes. The attacked plants sucker pro- 

 fusely, affording the young, tender growth for the beetles to feed 

 upon, even for many days after the non-infested plants have 

 become hard." Injury seems to be most serious on low land. 

 Injury by this species somewhat resembles that done by the larger 

 corn stalk-borer (Diatraea zeacolella), but is easily distinguished 

 from the work of the other bill-bugs, as the punctures of the latter, 

 which usually form a row or rows of holes in the leaves when they 

 unfold, arc not always fatal to the plants. 



Control. Inasmuch as most of the beetles hibernate in the 

 corn stubble, they may be readily destroyed by pulling out and 

 burning the stubble. Care must be taken, however, to pull out 

 the taproot, as the stalk will be liable to break above the beetle 

 and leave it in the ground. As the infested stalks have a poor 

 root system, they are easily pulled. 



The Corn Ear-worm * 



Practically the only insect injuring the ears of field-corn and 

 the worst insect pest of sugar-corn, is the ear-worm. In the 

 extreme South it is almost impossible to grow sugar-corn success- 

 fully on account of its injury, while further north it largely reduces 

 the profits of corn grown for the cannery, and destroys a consider- 

 able percentage of the kernels of field-corn. It is a most cosmopol- 

 itan insect, being found throughout the United States and in many 

 parts of the world, and has a long list of food plants, being known 

 as the tomato fruit-worm, tobacco bud-worm, and cotton boll- 

 worm (see pages 304, 234, 254) when attacking these plants, 

 besides which it feeds on beans, peas, and many garden crops 

 and forage plants, such as cowpeas and alfalfa. 



Life History. Along the Gulf Coast the first moths appear in 

 April, in the latitude of 33 about the middle of May, and in the 

 latitude of Delaware and Kansas, early in June. 



* Heliotfd-s obsoleta Fab. Family Noctuidee. 



