NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 75 



fields than ever before and one consequence was a report from F. 

 D. Condeman, Waterville, under date of June 9, 19 19, to the effect 

 that caterpillars of this insect infested about 5 per cent of the plants 

 in his corn field. An examination of the affected corn disclosed 

 feeding at the base very suggestive of grass webworms. The small 

 caterpillars apparently eat a little hole below the surface of the 

 corn and in that way produce an unthrifty condition. 



This insect has also been recorded from dahlia and is known as 

 an inhabitant of tender elder shoots, the infested tips hanging 

 because the interior is gnawed away until only the thin bark 

 remains. Apparently elder is the preferred food plant, and if this 

 is correct it is obvious that injury in corn fields must either be 

 limited to the margins near wild growth or to fields which have been 

 indififerently cultivated and are therefore infested with thick- 

 stemmed plants which would prove attractive to the moths when 

 ovipositing. 



The general interest in corn insects and the desirability of posi- 

 tively recognizing various borers have led us to prepare the follow- 

 ing detailed description : 



Larva, half grown, length, 15 to 18 mm. Head mostly yellowish 

 orange, the body yellowish white, with broad, broken submedian 

 and lateral purplish brown stripes and between a narrow broken 

 purplish brown longitudinal line. Below the lateral stripe there is 

 a narrower broken line, obsolete on the thoracic segments, and ven- 

 trad of that, namely on the base of the true and prolegs, a broader 

 broken line subobsolete anteriorly, and on the leg-bearing abdominal 

 segments extending to include most of the prolegs and the ventral 

 area between. 



The quadrate portions of the submedian broken dark bands of the 

 abdominal segments bear near the anterior mesial fourth a circular 

 unisetose tubercle and near the posterior lateral angle a similar 

 tubercle. There is a similar tubercle just above the spiracle, a small 

 one a little above and anterior, a larger one almost directly posterior 

 and a smaller one ventrad. There is a somewhat oval, unise- 

 tose tubercle at the base of the prolegs or in the corresponding 

 position on the legless abdominal segments. The eighth abdominal 

 segment has four large, oval, unisetose, nearly equidistant submedian 

 tubercles, two on the anterior and two on the posterior margin of 

 the segment, this arrangement contrasting strongly with the normal 

 arrangement on the seventh and other abdominal segments. On the 

 ninth abdominal segment there is a submedian pair of narrowly 

 oval, unisetose tubercles, a sublateral, circular, unisetose tubercle 

 and close to it and a little ventrad and caudad a narrowly oval 

 setose tubercle with an oval lateral one farther ventrad. Suranal 

 plate a dark reddish brown, covering the entire segment and near 

 the middle with a pair of submedian setae and along the lateral edge 

 a series of sparse somewhat irregularly placed long setae. 



