408 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



become fully established. They eat into the stalks and ears of corn, the same as into the 

 cotton bolls; also into the green as well as ripe tomatoes, causing them to rot. They will 

 also eat the leaves of plants when they can find nothing better. It will bore into the pods of 

 the garden pea, devouring the entire contents of one pod before leaving for another. The 

 heads of hemp are not exempt from its depredations, but often suffer from its attacks. 



The eggs are laid upon all parts of the plant, but, according to authentic sources, usually 

 in cotton upon the outside of the outer calyx, or young boll. One authority says respecting 

 the place in which the moth deposits her eggs: &quot;On one cotton plant I found eleven eggs, 

 which were distributed in the following manner: one on the outer calyx of the boll, two on 

 the stalks, and eight on the leaves.&quot; 



The duration of the egg before hatching varies with the season, as it does with the 

 cotton-worm. The young larvae feed upon the part of the plant upon which they are hatched, 

 for a longer or shorter time, but eventually make their way to the flower -bud or boll, into 

 which they eat. They are sometimes seen in the full flower. A description of these worms 

 is given in the Report of the Department of Agriculture, as follows: 



&quot;As the boll-worms increase in size, a most wonderful diversity of color and marking 

 becomes apparent. In color, different individuals will vary from a brilliant green to a deep 

 pink or a dark brown, exhibiting almost every conceivable intermediate stage, and from an 

 immaculate, unstriped specimen to one with regular spots and many stripes. The green 

 worms are more common than those of any other color; but those of varying shades of pink 

 or brown are so abundant as to make it impossible to fix upon a type. Early in the season 

 the prevailing color is green. A common variety is light green in color. Running from the 

 first ring back of the head to the posterior end of the body on each side is a broad whitish 

 line; just above is a broad dusky line; down the center of the back is another dusky line, or 

 stripe, as it should preferably be called; this dorsal stripe has a narrow white line down its 

 center, and it is bordered on each side by a narrow white line. Between the dusky dorsal 

 and lateral stripes run four or five very faint, wavy, longitudinal, white lines, so faint as not 

 to interfere with the general color of the body. Each body-ring has eight black spots, which, 

 upon being examined with a lens, are seen to be tubercles, each with a stiff hair upon its tip. 

 These spots are arranged in two transverse rows of four, the spots in the front row being 

 slightly closer together than those in the back row; the outer spot of the back row is small 

 and placed nearer the front row. 



Of these features the most constant seems to be the whitish stripe on each side. When 

 the boll-worm is brown, these stripes assume a yellowish hue. Another pretty constant 

 feature is the relative position of the tubercles just described. They are not always of a 

 contrasting color to the rest of the back, and hence cannot always be spoken of as spots. 

 When they are not discernible as spots, however, an examination with the lens shows them 

 still present as tubercles, each surmounted by a hair. This point affords apparently a good 

 and reliable means of distinguishing the young boll-worm from the young cotton-worm, 

 which otherwise might prove a matter of difficulty during the earlier stages and in the early 

 part of the year, before black cotton-worms are to be found. In the cotton-worm the two 

 middle spots of each of the two rows of four are of the same distance apart, so as to form the 

 four corners of a rectangle. In the boll-worm, however, the two middle spots of the hind 

 row are more widely separated than the corresponding spots of the front row. This dis 

 tinction may be recognized at a glance when the eye has become accustomed to it. The 

 dusky dorsal stripe is often wanting, as also are the dusky lateral stripes, and, as just stated, 

 the spots are often indiscernible.&quot; 



The general color of the body and upper wings of the moth that lays the eggs varies 

 from a light gray, tinged with olive green, to a rich yellow gray or tawny color. The most 

 prominent feature in the marking of the boll-worm moth is a broad black band on the back 



