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seen in Texas and Mississippi six weeks or so before the cotton- 

 caterpillar proper appears on the coast of Georgia and South 

 Carolina. Little is known of its habits more than this ; for its 

 ravages are comparatively so inconsiderable that it attracts 

 scarcely any attention of the planter. Its concomitancy with the 

 true cotton-worm, however, is not a little remarkable, and there 

 is no doubt that it belongs to a different family of insects. 



The cotton insect having made its appearance, shows consider- 

 able sagacity in always seeking first the most luxuriant fields. 

 The eggs, which are of a dull white color, are deposited singly, 

 or at most in twos, on the under surface of the most tender leaves. 

 Their period of incubation is quite short, being six or seven days, 

 and the time of hatching is always after sunset or in the night. 

 They then begin to feed ravenously, and grow in proportion ; 

 their attacks being always confined to the long-stapled variety 

 when accessible, though, when hard pushed, they will eat the 

 short variety, but never any thing else ; and if their numbers 

 are disproportionate in excess to the cotton at hand, they will 

 die of starvation rather than touch any other vegetable. During 

 their caterpillar state, they are almost wholly unaffected by all 

 changes in the weather, excepting cold ; for the heaviest rains 

 and the severest gales of wind do not stay their movements, or 

 prevent in the least their devastations. Mr. Chisolm says that 

 a very violent hurricane, of two or three hours' duration, which 

 swept over his plantations in August last, made no impression 

 whatever on their progress. If, however, there occurs even a 

 slight frost, they are killed throughout. These circumstances 

 are worthy of mention, as bearing upon their probable tropical 

 origin. Their larval state is of about ten days' duration, and, 

 during this time, they moult two or three times, changing their 

 colors and general appearance in the same singular manner 

 as the canker-worm of the north. The caterpillar, when full 

 grown and well fed, is sixteen legged, of the size of a common 

 crow-quill, and from an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half 

 in length. It has a reddish head, is whitish below, and brownish 

 black above ; on each side are two longitudinal, wavy, white 

 lines, and another, straight, on the middle of the back. When 

 ready to wind up, they swing down from the cotton plant, and, 

 without any choice, take up indifferently with the nearest objects, 

 on which they may rest during this process. Their chrysalid 



