LARGE WORMS BORING IN BUD OR FRUIT 211 
The Cowpea Curculio (Chalcodermus @neus Boh.) 
The pods of cowpeas are punctured, and early in the spring young 
cotton plants are injured, by the feeding of this beetle. The immature 
stage or grub lives within the growing ‘ peas,”’ and ruins them for 
seed. The adult beetle is one fourth of an inch long, bronze black, 
its thorax and wing covers deeply pitted. When working on cotton, 
the beetles puncture the tender stems. 
The insect hibernates as an adult. Eggs are laid in cowpeas as soon 
as the pods are large enough. The larva enters the ground to pupate. 
No direct control measures are known. If cowpeas are badly in- 
fested, it is unwise to follow with cotton in the same field. 
The Corn Ear-worm (Heliothis obsoleta Fab.) 
Synonyms: The Cotton Boll-worm; the Tomato Fruit-worm; the 
Tobacco False Budworm 
Widespread injury to valuable garden and field crops is due to the 
ravages of this insect. 
The full-grown worm is variable in markings, but usually is dull 
greenish or brownish in color, with indistinct stripes or spots, and is 
Fig. 263.— Larva and work of the Corn Ear-worm. Reduced to one half 
natural size. Original. 
about 13 inches long. It is naked, and the skin looks somewhat 
greasy, like that of cutworms. 
On corn the worms feed in the young kernels and eat the tender 
