2 • BULLETIN 363, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 



of corn in the principal regions infested might be lost. While the 

 insect confined its attacks largely to Mississippi, it was also observed 

 in injurious numbers in Arkansas, Alabama, Texas, and Louisiana. 



Singularly, the species was not described until the year 1882, when 

 Lord Walsingham gave it the name of Batrachedra rileyi, but it now 

 assumes nearly the same importance as the Angoumois grain moth ^ 

 and is much more troublesome now than the European grain moth.^ 

 The species sufficiently resembles the latter to have been mistaken 

 for it by Glover and others, and its work has been compared to that 

 of the former. Li reality it bears some resemblance to both species 

 in appearance and habits. 



The pink corn-worm was first brought to the writer's attention 

 in ripening ears of corn from Texas in 1894 (Chittenden, 1897).^ 

 From the fact that the larvae first seen were feeding on the husks 

 and the species was not then identified as feeding naturally on the 

 kernels of corn, it was for convenience called the corn-husk moth, 

 and this name might have been retained had not the insect devel- 

 oped later into a destructive grain-feeding species. The names 

 pink corn-worm, pink worm, and red corn-worm are now in general 



use in the South. 



NATURE OF INJURY. 



In material received from Baton Rouge, La., and Beeville, Tex., 

 in 1895, the little rose-colored larvae were noticed by the writer 

 chiefly between the husks, which were fresh and succulent, and on 

 these they were feeding. A few moths were afterwards reared 

 from the husked ear. The Texas sending afforded a fair opportunity 

 for the study of the work of the species. One undeveloped ear 

 harbored numbers of the larvae which had gnawed into every part 

 of it from the outer husk to the dwarfed ear within. 



The injured grains when examined individually have somewhat the 

 appearance of being infested by the Indian-meal moth (Plodia inter- 

 functella Hbn.) but not by the Angoumois grain moth. The larvae 

 evidently begin to feed on the grains while the latter are still ' 'in the 

 milk" or very soon afterwards, beginning at their insertion and work- 

 ing outward toward the crown. The embryo and surromiding parts 

 are hoUowed out and the seed envelope is often eaten away about the 

 base or ''tip" of the seed. An astonishing amount of frass is devel- 

 oped wliich is neither eaten a second time nor packed tightly witliin 

 the kernel, as is evidently the case with the Angoumois moth larva, 

 but the particles, being loosely joined by webbing, fill the interstices 

 between the kernels. (PL I.) Usually a single larva inhabits a 

 kernel but frequently the interior of a grain is completely devoured, 

 so that the only part remaining is the thin outer integument inclosing 

 a varying amount of accumulated frass. Doubtless this is the work 



^ Siioiroga cerealella Zell. 2 Tinea granellali. 3 See Bibliography, p. 19. 



