38 



SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF 



As various attempts have been made, with more or less success, 

 to grow the cotton plant in the southern parts of this State, a descrip- 

 tion of this insect will not be inappropriate, the more especially, 

 since it will teach the reader the difference between it and the true 

 Army-worm. 



The Cotton-worm was first scientifically described by Mr. Thomas 

 Say, in the year 1827. According to Dr. D. L. Phares, of Woodville, 

 Miss., it destroyed at a low estimate, 200 tons of cotton in the Baha- 

 mas as long ago as 178S; while in Georgia it completely destroyed 

 the crop in 1793. According to Dr. Capers* its injuries were noticed 

 in 1S00, and it likewise proved very destructive in 1804, 1825 and 1826. 

 Since the last date, as we may learn from old volumes of the American 

 Farmer, of Baltimore, Md., and from the Patent Office Reports, it has 

 done more or less damage to the crop almost annually, in some part 

 or other of the cotton-growing district. As with the real grass-feed- 

 ing Army-worm of the Middle States, it swarms in particular years to 

 such an extent as to utterly ruin the crop, while in other years it is 

 scarcely noticed. This fact has led many to infer that there is a 

 stated periodicity in its returns in such immense numbers; but the 

 natural history of the worm confutes such an idea, while the records 

 give no foundation for the inference. The sudden increase or decrease 

 of this, as of other species of noxious insects, depends on climatic, as 

 well as on other equally potent influences. 



[Fig. 12.1 



The egg, (Fig. 12, «), according to Dr. Phares is shaped "pre- 

 cisely like a scull-cap, with rows of pinheads from base to apex as 

 thickly set as possible," appearing as if moulded in a very deep 

 saucer. These eggs are of a translucent green color, and are depos- 

 ited upon the under side of the leaves, and from their small size, are 

 naturally difficult of detection. Each female moth deposits from 400- 

 to 600, and according to the late Thomas Affleck, of Brenham, Texas, 

 they hatch two days after being deposited, if the weather be moist 

 and warm. The worms (Fig. 12 J, i grown) at first feed upon the par- 

 enchyma or soft fleshy parts of the leaves, but afterwards devour in- 



*Patent Office Rep., 1855, p. 74. 



