184 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



moth may readily push off this surface soil and escape. The 

 burrow finished, the larva retires to the bottom of the cell and 

 there molts and enters the pupal stage. 



The pupa is four-fifths inch long, shining reddish-brown. 

 During the summer the moths emerge about two weeks later, 

 but the last generation in the fall passes the winter in the pupal 

 stage. Thus the complete life cycle from egg to adult moth 

 requires slightly over a month in midsummer, and from six to 

 eight weeks for the spring and fall broods. 



The second generation of moths appears about the middle 

 of July in the latitude of. Delaware and Kansas. In the far 

 South the second generation of moths appears when corn is com- 

 ing into silk and tassel, upon which the moths always prefer to 

 lay their eggs. As a result, the caterpillars of the second genera- 

 tion in the South, and the third further North, do serious injury 

 to field-corn, gnawing out the kernels at the tips of the ears, and 

 furnishing favorable conditions for molds to propagate, which 

 do further injury. From 2 to 3 per cent of the corn crop of the 

 country, with a cash value of $30,000,000 to $50,000,000, is thus 

 destroyed by the ear worm annually. 



The third generation of moths appears the last of August 

 in Delaware and Kansas and gives rise to the third brood of 

 caterpillars, w r hich are there the most destructive brood on field- 

 corn and sugar-corn, frequently causing a loss of from 10 to 50 

 per cent of the latter crop. The caterpillars become full grown 

 during the latter part of September and change to pupae, which 

 hibernate over winter as already described. 



In the Gulf States there are four full broods and along the 

 Gulf Coast there may be five or six, while in the Northern States 

 there are but two generations, with possibly but one in Ontario. 



Control. As the pupae pass the winter in the soil, by all means 

 the most satisfactory and practical means of control is to plow 

 infested land in late fall or during the winter, plowing deeply 

 and harrowing. This will break up the pupal cells, crush some 

 of the pupae, and expose others to the rigors of winter to which 

 most of them will succumb. 



