noun
: the large smooth longitudinally striped yellow-headed destructive larva of a noctuid moth ( Heliothis zea ) that is worldwide in distribution but especially destructive in warm regions and that feeds on many cultivated plants usually (as on maize) by entering at the tip of the ear, feeding on the developing kernels, and befouling the area in which it lodges with frass and debris — called also bollworm, tobacco budworm, tomato fruitworm, vetchworm