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tween the boU-worra and corn-worm moth, and their appearance and habits in both 

 caterpillar and chrysalis state are the same, it will, perhaps, prove that the 

 boll-worm may be the caterpillar of the corn-worm moth, and that the eggs 

 are deposited on the young boll as the nearest substitute for unripe corn, and only 

 placed upon cotton when corn has become too hard and old to serve as their food. 

 Colonel B. A. Sorsby, of Columbus, Georgia, has bred both these insects, and 

 pronounces them to be the same, and states, moreover, in support of this theory, 

 that when, according to his advice, the corn was carefully wormed on two or 

 three plantations, the boll-worms did not make their appearance that season on 

 the cotton, notwithstandiug that on neighboring plantations they committed great 

 ravages. For the sake of proving this fact I have frequently taken the worms 

 from unripe ears of coi-n and fed them entirely on cotton bolls, as also the worms 

 from cotton and fed them on corn, and in no case did the change of diet appear 

 to affect the health of tjie caterpillars in the least, as they went through all their 

 transformations in exactly the same manner, and when the perfect moths made 

 their appearance they could not be distinguished from each other, although I 

 may here observe, that even from the same bi'ood of caterpillars the perfect 

 moths vary considerably in size, color, and markings. The worms, or caterpil- 

 lars, have six pectoral, eight ventral, and two anal feet, and creep along with a 

 gradual motion quite unlike the looping gait of the true cotton caterpillar ; they 

 vary in color and markings, some of them being brown, while others are almost 

 green, with all the intermediate shades. The brown caterpillars generally have 

 a longitudinal yellow band or stripe on each side, and several longitudinal stripes 

 of a darker brown on the back, while the green have a greenish-yellow longi- 

 tudinal stripe along each side, and are also striped on the back ; all are more or 

 less spotted with black, and slightly clothed with short hairs, arising from each wart 

 or black spot. These variations of color are not easily accounted for, as several 

 caterpillars changed color without any apparent cause, being fed upon the same 

 food and in the same box as the others. Several planters assert that in the 

 earlier part of the season the green worms are found in the greatest number, 

 while the dark brown variety are seen later in the autumn, as we know is also 

 the case with the caterpillars of the cotton army-worm. 



The upper wings of the moth are of a yellowish clay color, in some of the 

 specimens having a tinge of olive green, but in others of rusty red. There is an 

 irregular dark band running across the wings about the eighth of an inch from 

 the margin, and a crescent-shaped dark spot near the centre; several dark spots, 

 each enclosing a white mark, are also in the broad cross-bands ; the under wings 

 are lighter colored, with a broad black border on the margin, and are also dis- 

 tinctly veined with the same color. Near the middle of this black border there 

 ■ is a light yellow clay-colored spot of the same as the rest of the under wings, 

 which is much more distinct in some specimens than in others, but may always 

 be plainly perceived ; there is also, in most specimens, a black mark or line in 

 the middle of the under wing; in some specimens, however, it is very indistinct. 

 These moths multiply very rapidly, for, as I have before observed, one female 

 moth may contain at least five hundred eggs, which, if hatched in safety, would 

 rapidly infest a whole plantation, three generations at least being produced in 

 Georgia in the course of one year. 



In an interesting communication from Colonel Benjamin F. Whitner, of Tal- 

 lahassee, Florida, he states that the boll-worm was scarcely known in his neigh- 

 borhood before the year 1S41, and yet in the short period of fourteen years it 

 had multiplied to such an extent as to become one of the greatest enemies to the 

 cotton on several plantations in that vicinity. 



Many planters have recommended fires to be lighted in various parts of the 

 plantations at the season when the first moths of this insect make their appear- 

 ance, as they are attracted by light and perish in great numbers in the flames ; 

 and if most of the first brood of females be thus destroyed, their numbers Avould 



