INSECTS INJURIOUS TO SWEET CORN 



209 



only the foliage, but bores into the ears when they are quite 

 young, destroying them utterly. The writer has seen fields 

 in Virginia badly attacked in this manner, the outward appear- 

 ance so closely simulating that due to the corn-ear worm as to 

 deceive all who witnessed the injury. It is discussed more 

 fully on page 56 on army worms. 



The Brown Fruit-chafer {Euphoria inda Linn.). — The ears 

 of green corn, ripening fruits and some flowers are subject to 

 the attack of the stout hairy brown beetle figured in 133. The 

 length is half an inch or more. The larva (d) is a white-grub, 

 with the lower moiety of the body of a dull leaden hue from 

 the contents of the abdomen. Transformation to pupa takes 

 place in a cocoon smooth within and irregular on the outer 

 surface. This species occurs practically everywhere in the 

 United States east of the Rocky Mountains. 



Fig. 133 —Brown fruit-chafer, a, Beetle; b. egg; c, d, larvae; e. pupa All enlarged 

 (Author's illustration, U. S. Dept. Agr.) 



Injury is confined to newly transformed beetles in autumn. 

 The food of the larva is manure, humus, and similar material, 

 and not healthy roots, as once supposed. The beetles feed 

 naturally on sap exuding from wounds in trees, and juices of 

 overripe or injured fruits or other vegetable growth, and 

 have an especial fondness for ears of ripening corn, particularly 

 sweet corn, and even bore through the husks to the kernels 

 within. The beetles devour flowers of different fruits, and 



