THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 39 



differently, not only any portion of the leaves, but also the blossom- 

 bud and blossom, together with the calyx leaves at the base of the 

 boll, thus causing the lobes which hold the cotton, to fall entirely 

 back and allow the cotton to drop at the slightest touch. While young 

 these worms readily let themselves down by a web when disturbed, 

 but when older they make less use of this web, and jerk themselves 

 away to a considerable distance when suddenly touched. They cast 

 their skins at five successive periods, and come to their growth in the 

 incredibly short space of fifteen or twenty days. Mr. Affleck even 

 states that they usually enter the chrysalis state on the eleventh day 

 after hatching; but I incline to believe that such a brief larval exist- 

 ence is extremely exceptional, and the length of time required for 

 them to mature will not only differ in different individuals of the same 

 brood, but will vary with the state of the atmosphere. At Figure 12 

 g is given a side view, and at d a back view of a full-grown worm. It 

 has the normal complement of legs — namely 16 — but the two fore- 

 most pair of false legs, or those under segments 6 and 7, are so re- 

 duced in size that they are scarcely used in motion, and it conse- 

 quently loops when walking. 



I have upon two occasions received full-grown specimens of this 

 worm, and they differ materially, both in depth of shade, coloration 

 and markings, as indeed do almost all the larvae of moths belonging 

 to the same {Noctua) family. The most common color is light green, 

 though they are frequently quite dark with a purplish hue at the 

 sides, and with black backs. Whether light or dark colored, how- 

 ever, they are more or less distinctly marked with pale longitudinal 

 lines and black spots, as in the above figures. 



Mr. Lyman, in his " Cotton Culture," says of this insect : " The 

 first moths that visit a crop deposit their eggs and die. These eggs in 

 ten days become little worms, which fall to eating the leaf on which 

 they were hatched, and as they grow, consume the plant and pass to 

 another. But age comes on apace with these ephemeral creatures ; 

 the worm presently grows weary of devouring, selects a leaf, rolls 

 himself in a little cocoon and dies." Of course this is a serious mis- 

 take to think that the worm dies, else how could it produce the moth 

 which, as Mr. Lyman himself shows, afterwards issues from the cocoon. 

 It is astonishing to find such gross errors creeping into our popular 

 works, but then, the study of these contemptible little Bugs, even if 

 they do sometimes totally destroy the crop, is of course beneath the 

 dignity of the man who can write a work on cotton culture!! The 

 truth of the matter is that, when they have completed their growth, 

 the worms fold over the edge of a leaf (Fig. 12 e), and, after lining the 

 inside with silk, change to chrysalids (Fig. 12 /), which are at first 

 green, but soon acquire a chestnut-brown color ; after remaining in 

 this last state (in which, though the insect is inactive, it is yet full of 

 life, and undergoing wonderful development) from seven to fourteen 

 days, or even longer, the moth escapes, the chrysalis being held fast 



