AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 109 



detected, either by a cut leaf or a wilted plant, search for him 

 just below the surface and crush him. 



HEART WORM. 

 Called also Top Worm. Spindle Worm. 



LARVA OF THE GORTYNIA ZEA. 



The moth is of a rust-red color, somewhat mottled with gray, 

 and having a few black dots. 



The larva is a rather slender and active yellowish-green 

 worm, with dark head, and spots and rings. It is from half 

 an inch to an inch long. Hatched in, or entering the side of 

 the corn-plant, it eats into it when from three to nine inches 

 high, consuming the heart or spindle of the young spear, and 

 where it abounds the crop of corn is greatly lessened or de- 

 stroyed. It infests also the dahlia and some other plants. 

 Remedy : catch and crush him, or stop his hole, and pour into 

 the plant a little weak ley. Perhaps, if attended to early, he 

 might be crushed, without injuring the growth, by carefully 

 compressing the young spear between the thumb and finger, 

 or a fine wire passed into his hole might pierce him. 



The "corn-borer" or bill-bug of the South is of similar 

 habit, though operating upon the crop at a later period of its 

 growth. The same remedies may be used for both as far as 

 practicable. For the latter the annual fall burning of the 

 corn- stumps, in which the chry sales are formed and pass the 

 winter, has been found an effectual check. 



HOP WORM. 

 LARVA OP THE HYPENA HUMULI. 



The hop worm is about an inch long when full grown, of a 

 greenish- white color, watery-looking or semi-transparent, and 

 slightly striped and dotted, having fourteen legs. The mouth 

 is yellowish, and the tips of the jaws black. 



The moth is about an inch long, and varies in color from 

 quite dark to a dull white. The worms appear early in June, 

 and continue until late in August, feeding upon and nearly 

 consuming the tissue of the leaves. 



