278 



FUNDAMENTALS OF AGRICULTURE. 



lays from 75 to 150 eggs, and she places each egg in a 

 square where no egg has been laid by another boll wee- 

 vil. Every square which receives an egg is destroyed, 

 so that one mother weevil, during the course of her 

 egg laying, will destroy from 75 to 150 squares. 



The Larva. In 3 or 4 days after the egg is laid, 

 it hatches into a small, white, footless " worm," called 

 the larva. At first the larva is not much larger than 



SQUARE OF COTTON, SHOWING EXIT OF ADULT BOLL WEEVIL. 



the egg from which it is hatched, but it begins at once 

 to feed on the pollen around it and grows very rapidly. 

 At about this time the infested square drops to the 

 ground. In about eight or ,ten days the larva eats up 

 all the pollen in the square and becomes so large that 

 it occupies all the inside of its little home, being now 

 about one-fourth of an inch long. Its period of 

 growth is now complete and it changes into the 

 " pupa." 



The Pupa. The pupal stage is the third period in 

 the young boll weevil's development. In this stage it 



