The Bulletin. 



31 



occasionally noticeable in North Carolina, it seems likely that the 

 parent moths of the worms which do damage with us are brought 

 here by long flights from the States further south. There are several 

 generations of the insect and the moths of an early generation might 

 come into North Carolina in July or August and their progeny would 

 be destructive to the cotton a few weeks later. The moths lay their 

 eggs principally on the under side of the leaves and in the tender 

 growing part of the plant. The egg is circular, flattened, and some- 

 what ribbed as shown in Fig. 10. 



Fig. 10.— Two views of Egg of Cotton Worm Moth, a. View from above; 6. 

 view from side. Much enlarged. 

 (From Fourth Report, U, S. Entomological Commission ) 



The eggs hatch in about a week and the young caterpillar begins to 

 "rag" the leaves. They do not usually attract attention until they 

 get large enough to devour considerable quantities of the foliage. At 

 this time the caterpillars present somewhat the appearance shown in 

 Fig, 11, which shows two views of the worm somewhat enlarged, the 

 length of the line between the two figures representing the actual 

 length. The caterpillar crawls by a looping motion, and Mr. Wog- 



i!=<'-3ii !^».=«a i p^g^l l ^gyj ftga^jg45«g|=aa|j B gj 



Fig. 11. — Cotton Worm, or Caterpillar, a, Side view ; 6, view from 

 above. Somewhat enlarged. Actual length indicated by line. 



(From Fourth Report, U. S. Entomological Commission.) 



him stat s that he has seen them, when disturbed, suddenly throw 

 themselves into the air as much as a foot above the leaf on which they 

 were. These caterpillars feed ravenously and when the tender 

 growth of one plant is consumed, may attack the older leaves or crawl 

 on to another plant, thus quickly spreading over an entire field, eating 

 away the tender top growth. 



