158 COTTON 



mamestradce, the larvae of which lives exposed, and transform 

 in the ground, as the cabbage caterpillar. The insect I will 

 call Phalosna Zea (corn-moth) until it is more correctly class- 

 ed, belongs, perhaps, to the latter group. 



The P. Zea, or corn-moth, is of a pale yellow or a shining 

 ash color length of body and wings one and one-eighth of an 

 inch, the wings expand two inches horizontal, the upper wings 

 covering the lower ; below the centre and near the border of 

 the upper wings, are two dark spots; there are some two or 

 three indistinct ones on each upper wing, end of the wing 

 whitish, a wavy dark band near the border. Thorax slightly 

 convex, downy ; abdomen color of wings, downy ; proboscis 

 folded spirally underneath, double, half-inch long ; eyes large, 

 clear, yellowish green. Legs six, antennae fusiform, palpi 

 very hairy, flies only late in the evening and at night, lies 

 concealed in the day in jams of the fence, around stumps, and 

 in the grass and weeds, flies rapid and low. 



The Maize Phalsena pairs with its mate as soon as found 

 (some insects of this order have a remarkable instinct that 

 way) ; the moth lays about 750 eggs, on the fourth day, 

 about the size of cabbage seed, of light cream color, and dies 

 in three or four days afterwards. The moth sucks the nectar 

 from the bloom, or rather between the calyx and petals. In 

 confinement, they will suck water sweetened with sugar. The 

 eggs of the first brood are laid on the silks of corn ; if no silks, 

 on the top of the corn ; you may very often find them in the 

 northern corn we plant for early roasting ears. The ova or 

 egg will hatch in two or three days. The larvae feeds upon the 

 silk and the grains of the corn, remains in the ear for fourteen 

 days, comes out and goes into the earth about three inches, 

 and is transformed into a chrysalis of bright, shining mahog- 

 any color, conical in shape, seven-eighths to one inch in length; 

 it remains in the ground from fourteen to sixteen days, when 



