THE COTTON-BOLL WEEVIL 



301 



FlG. 260. PUPA FROM ABOVE AND 



BELOW. (Greatly enlarged) 



After Sanderson, Bulletin of Texas 

 Experiment Station 



sharp as razors. Then shortly the females begin to lay 



eggs. At first, these eggs are laid only in the cotton 



squares, and generally only 

 one to the square. By and 

 by, when the unused 

 squares become scarce, 

 eggs are deposited in the 

 bolls. Sometimes two or 

 three eggs are laid in each 

 boll. The mother beetle 

 with her snout eats a hole 

 into the boll, pushes the 

 eggs in, and then stops the 

 hole with the pieces eaten 

 out. The juice of the plant 



glues in the loose pieces and soon a warty-looking spot 



marks the place of the egg. The young grub hatches 



in two or three days 



from the egg. In its 



entirely protected home, 



the newly hatched grub 



eats the square and it 



soon falls to the ground. 



Entire fields may at 



times be seen without 



a single square on the 



cotton plants. 



In from one to two 



weeks, the grub or larva FIG. 261. THE LARVA OF COTTON-BOLL 



WEEVIL IN A SQUARE 



becomes fully grown 



After an original furnished by United States 



and transforms to the 



Department of Agriculture 



