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frequently the flower falls ^f itliout forming any boll whatever. In many cases, 

 however, the young worm bores through the bottom of the flower into the im- 

 mature boll before the old flower falls, thus leaving the boll and involucel or 

 envelope still adhering to the foot stalk, with the worm safely lodged in the 

 growing boll. The number of buds destroyed by this worm is very great, as 

 they fill off" when quite small, and are scarcely observed as they lie brown and 

 withering on the ground beneath the plant. The instinct of the boll-worm, 

 however, teaches it to forsake a bud or boll about to fall, and either to seek 

 another healthy boll or to fasten itself to a leaf, on which it remains until it has 

 shed its skin, when it attacks another boll in a similar manner, until at length 

 it acquires size and strength sufficient to enable it to bore into the nearly-matured 

 bolls, the interior of which are entirely destroyed by its attacks, as, should it 

 not be completely devoured, rain penetrates through the hole made by the worm, 

 and the cotton soon becomes rotten and will not ripen. These rotted bolls 

 serve also as food or shelter for numerous small insects, which will be men- 

 tioned afterwards. One thing is worthy of observation ; and that is, whenever 

 a young boll or bud is seen with the involucre or outer calyx (by some called 

 the "ruffle") spread open and of a sickly yellow color, it may safely be con- 

 cluded that it has been attacked by the boll- worm, and will soon perish and fall 

 to the grovrnd. When the bolls are older they remain adhering to the plant. 

 If many of these fallen " forms" or buds lying on the ground are closely ex- 

 amined, the greater portion of them will be found to have been previously 

 pierced by the boll-worm ; some few exceptions, however, may have been 

 caused by minute punctures of plant-bugs, by rains, or adverse atmospheric in- 

 fluences. 



The buds injured by the worm may readily be distinguished by a minute hole 

 where it ha? entered, and which, when cut open, will be found partially filled 

 with small black grains, something like coarse gunpowder, which is nothing but 

 the digested food after having passed through the body of the young worm. 

 The boll-worm when very young is able to suspend itself by a silken thread if 

 blown by the wind or accidently brushed from the boll or leaf on which it rested. 

 After changing or shedding its skin several times and attaining its full size, the 

 caterpillar descends from the plant and burrows into the earth, where it makes 

 a cocoon of gravel and earth interwoven or cemented together with a gummy- 

 silk which issues from its mouth. In this earthen cocoon it changes into the 

 chrysalis state. 



Worms which entered the ground in the month of September and October 

 appeared as perfect moths in about one month ; but when they descend into the 

 ground later in the season the chrysalides will remain all Avinter and appear as 

 perfect moths the following spring. 



A boll-worm which was bred from an egg found upon the involucel, " or ruf- 

 fle," of a flower bud, grew to rather more than the twentieth of an inch in length 

 by the third day, when it shed its skin, having eaten in the mean time nothing 

 but the parenchyma, or tender fleshy substance from the outside of the calyx. 

 On the fifth day it pierced through the outer calyx and commenced feeding 

 inside. On the sixth day it again shed its skin, and had increased to about the 

 tenth of an inch in length. On the tenth day it again shed its skin, ate the 

 interior of the young flower bud, and had grown much larger. On the fourteenth 

 day, for the fourth time it shed its skin, attacked and ate into a young boll, and 

 had increased to thirteen twentieths of an inch in length. From this time it ate 

 nothing but the inside of the boll ; and on the twentieth day the skin was again 

 shed, and it had grown to the length of an inch and one-tenth, but, unfortunately, 

 died before completing its final change. 



These moths probably deposit their eggs on some other plants when cotton 

 is inaccessible. A young boll-worm was found in the corolla of the flower of a 

 squash devouring the pistil and stamens ; and as there is a striking similarity be- 



