t 
THE EGG. 

When ready to deposit an egg the female eats the customary hole 
into a square, form, or boll, and hollows it out somewhat larger at the 
inner end. She then turns around, protrudes her oyipositor, or egg 
guide, into this hole and deposits the egg. As she finishes this proc- 
ess she seals the opening with a small drop of glue. This prevents 
ants and other predaceous insects from finding the egg. It also pre- 
vents rain and dew from starting decay from the outside. It requires 
fifteen to twenty minutes for the weevil to eat the hole for the egg, 
deposit it, and seal the opening. 
The egg is elliptical and almost colorless. It hatches in two or 
three days after deposition, depending upon the weather, producing 
a very small, white, footless larva, which immediately begins feeding 
inside the square. 
So far as yet observed the female will deposit her eggs nowhere else 
than in the young squares, forms, or bolls, and never promiscuously 

Fic. 2.—Mature boll cut open at left, showing full-grown larva; the bollat right is not cut, but shows 
feeding punctures and oyiposition marks. (After Howard.) 
over the plant. It sometimes happens that two eggs are laid into a 
square, but this is not common. Should squares or forms become 
scarce, the females attack the young, and even well-grown, bolls. 
When thus pressed for food itis often found that two or three, or even 
more, eggs are laid into the developing bolls. 
Observations are not yet conclusive, but those made so far indicate 
that a distinct hibernating brood is produced late in the season in 
those sections where frost kills cotton. Few, if any, of the eggs of 
the females of this generation are laid in the fall. The eggs deposited 
late in the season are more likely, or mostly, eggs of belated females 
from the previous generation. If a distinct hibernating generation is 
not produced late in the season, the fact remains that the last brood 
deposits very few eggs before the end of the season during which it 
was bred. 
