Photo by H. Browning. Full grown caterpillars are about 1 inch long, white to yellow with rich brown head capsules and first thoracic segment. Each body segment is marked with round brown to black spots.
Adults are small brown moths with darker brown bands on each forewing.
A number of other pyralid stalk borer species are agricultural pests in Texas. Caterpillars of European corn borers are brownish to pinkish with small dark spots on each body segment, whereas those of the southern cornstalk and southwestern corn borers are yellowish-white with round brown spots on each body segment similar to the sugarcane borer. Caterpillars lack dark spots but have two purple-red stripes similar to dashes on each body segment that do not connect to the stripes on adjacent segments. Along the Texas coast, rice stalk borer , Chilo plejadellus Zincken, caterpillars also lack dark spots, but have a pair continuous light brown to purplish stripes all along the sides of their bodies. Full grown larvae overwinter in cells in crop stubble and pupate in the spring.