360 REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



It is probably the second brood which attracts the most attention and 

 does the most damage. In August and September the infested fields 

 begin to present a sorry sight. Many of the husks are seen to be pierced 

 by circular holes, and, upon opening, the grain is found to be eaten iu 

 furrows, principally at the outer end of the ear. If the work has been 

 done before the kernel has set or hardened, the milky juice will have 

 exuded and smeared the end of the ear, when mold soon forms upon it, 

 other insects work their way in and feed upon it, and the whote ear soon 

 presents a disgusting appearance. 



Earely more than one full-grown worm is found in the ear at the same 

 time, though frequently several of different sizes are to be seen. In the 

 course of its growth the worm by ho means confines itself to a single ear. 

 As the whim seizes it, or as the flavor of one ear palls upon its appe- 

 tite, another is entered, either upon the same or an adjoining stalk. 

 The journey from one to another is made in the night, and the new ear 

 is usually entered by a circular hole bored through some part of the 

 husk 5 so that the mere presence of a hole in the husk does not, as is 

 thought by many, necessarily imply that the worm has left the ear to 

 transform. 



From the first to the last of September the worms of this second 

 brood bore out through the husks and enter the ground to transform, 

 those pupating first frequently, in warm seasons in the more northern 

 localities, and always, we believe, in the latitude of South Illinois, Mis- 

 souri, and Virginia, giving rise to a third brood, which feeds upon the 

 hardened corn if more congenial food is not at hand. 



It was formerly thought that the efforts of the worm on corn were 

 confined to the tender and milky ears. In fact we stated {American 

 Eritomolofjist^ I, 1869, p. 212) that— 



The worm cannot live on hard corn, and it is usually full-grown when the kernels 

 are in the ''milk" state. 



In 1870, however, we corrected this idea in the following words (see 

 Third Missouri Entomological Report, 1S70, p. 104): 



I was formerly of the opinion that this worm could not live on hard corn, and it cer- 

 tainly does generally disappear before the corn fully ripens, but last fall Mr. James 

 Harkness, of Saint Louis, brought me, as late as the latter' part of October, from a 

 corn-field on the Illinois bottom, a number of large and well-ripened ears, each con- 

 taining from one to five worms of ditfereut sizes, subsisting and flourishing upon the 

 hard kernels. 



Prof. E. W. Clayi)ole, of Antioch College, Yellow ^Springs, Ohio, also 

 called attention to the same fact in the November (1880) number of the 

 American Entomologist, He says: 



In cutting my own corn yesterday I found many specimens of this insect, and there 

 now lies before me an ear almost uninjured and nearly dry, the kernels being too hard 

 to yield to the nail, and full of meal when broken, m which is an almost full-grown 

 worm engaged iu eating these hard grains. " * * Later. I have as late as the 

 first week of this month (October) found small Corn Worms, not more than half an 

 inch long, engaged in eating the ripe cars of corn, and I can add from experience that 

 these small worms can bite sharply. 



