CORN-INSECTS, Insects affecting Indian corn are numerous and varied.—Plant Lire: An aphis I Rhopalosildium maidis) is widely dis tributed by means of its migratory winged swarms; it lays its eggs on the stems of the corn beneath the ground, and the young attack the roots: the ants assist this injury by carry ing females heavy with young and colonizing them upon the roots. (See Insect Life, I., III., Washington, 1888-00.)—Bectbs: Certain weevils attack the roots and stems, especially bill-bugs of the genus Sphenophorus, the grubs burrowing in the bulbs of the young plants and eating the roots of the tender leaves near the surface of the ground; their work is sometimes confounded with that of a cutworm (larva of liadcna stiyatu). Fall plowing is useful against both. 'The lame of several flee-beetles (Diabrotica) are often styled corn root-worms. The adult beetles, closely related to the cucumber, melon, and squash beet les, feed on the pollen and silk of corn and the larvx on the roots, and both do great damage in the Mississippi Valley. Rotation of crops is the most effective remedy. Various other beetles are locally or occasionally harmful, and one is prominent as destructive to grain, the corn silvanus (ilronus Su•inanzensis). From an economic standpoint this is the most important member of the family Cucujidle. It is a flat beetle with the edges of the prothorax saw toothed. Besides Indian corn, wheat. and other
grain, it infests dried fruits and other food stuffs. Another member of the same family, a bright-scarlet beetle, of the genus Cucujus, also infests stored grain.—Iloths: The lame of moths, 'cutworms' and 'webworms.' do much damage. The worst species, however, is the 'corn-worm,' or 'corn-bud worm,' the caterpillar of a noctuid moth (Heliothis armigera), which destroys the flower-buds. (See COTTON-INSECTS.) The large 'stalk-borer,' often highly injurious in Southern fields, is the larva of a phalvenid moth (Diatraw saecharalis), which perforates the stems at their base, where, in the arils of the starting leaves, the parent moth lays its eggs in spring. This insect is better known as the sugar-cane borer of the American tropics. Tidy methods of farming are the best preventive. Other smaller borers are the caterpillars of the moths Pempclia lignosella and Gortynn The chinch-bug (q.v.) is also an enemy of Indian corn. Consult: Riley, "Insects of Missouri," in United States Department of Agriculture, Diri sion of Entomology, Reports 1 and 3 (Washing ton, 1881) ; Lintner. "Insects of New York," in Agricultural Experiment Station Report 1 (Al bany, 1882) ; Comstock and Slingerland, "Wire worms," in Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 33 (Ithaca, 1891).