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 in 
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, aud the whole ear soon 
presents a disgusting appearance. 
Rarely 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 no 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 ; 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 
Entomologist, I, 1860, p. 212) that— 
The worm cannot live on bard 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, 1870, 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-held on the Illinois bottom, a number of large and well-ripened cars, each con- 
taining from one to five worms of different sizes, subsisting and flourishing upon the 
hard kernels. 
Prof. E. W. Claypole, 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 (€ this insect, and there 
now lies before me an car 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 in eating these hard grains. * * * Later. I have as late as the 
first week of this month (October) found small Corn Worms, not more than hall" an 
incli Long, engaged in eating the ripe cars of corn, and I can add from experience that 
these small worms can bite sharply. 
